


Nightmare And The Babybone Sanses

by sirsen



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crosstale | XTale (Undertale), Babybones (Undertale), Broken Bones, Child Abuse, Drabbles, Dreamtale Sans (Undertale), Dusttale Sans (Undertale), Error Sans - Freeform, Horrortale Sans (Undertale), Ink, Killer Sans (Undertale) - Freeform, Mentions of Racism, dadmare, error, ink is not a good guy, ink sans - Freeform, mentions of abuse, nightmare struggles to take care of babybones
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:33:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 37,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24403615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirsen/pseuds/sirsen
Summary: When Nightmare said he wanted a group of monsters that would be loyal to only him and cause mayhem, he didn't mean four babybone brats. Now he has to take care of them while also trying to train them to become the perfect group of monsters that he wanted when they grow up.This will most likely just be drabbles of shenanigans with Nightmare and the boys, so each chapter will probably be a different day with different stuff happening.
Comments: 311
Kudos: 497





	1. It Begins

Nightmare paced around, waiting for any kind of sound at his door. What was he expecting to happen? He was waiting for his side of the deal. If it was followed through, then he should get a group of monsters that will be loyal only to him and cause mayhem for him. While he was the one who brought negative emotions wherever he went, it was proving to be difficult to gain enough negativity to make him strong enough to defeat his brother. Said brother was still locked away in stone, but it wouldn’t be long before he would be freed, and he hasn’t gotten nearly strong enough to be able to win a fight against him. As much as he hated to admit it, positivity was still very strong in this world and throughout the multiverse. If he manages to get this group of monsters, then he should have a much easier time causing negative emotions, and he will become much stronger much faster. 

He was currently pacing around a large mansion that he prepared for the group. There should be plenty of room for everyone even if it is a large group that shows up, and the kitchen is filled with plenty of food to feed a small fleet. Don’t get him wrong, he’s not exactly doing something nice for his group – he’s just making sure that they are comfortable here, so that they don’t turn against him. Giving them food and plenty of space to call their own should keep them calm and prevent them from fighting amongst themselves. He’d also made sure to infuse this mansion with his magic, so that no matter what room he’s in, he’ll be able to sense if anything is happening. This also allows him to go wherever he wanted as he paced, and he would still hear if someone was at the door.

The dark skeleton suddenly stopped his pacing when he felt a presence at the door. No, there were four of them – it must be the group that he had asked for. He smirked at this, so the that demon actually came through with his side of the deal despite being tricked by Nightmare. Seems that he’s managed to get what he wanted for free. Nightmare teleported to the door and opened it without giving the group on the other side a chance to knock. His expectations were pretty high for this group, since the deal was so rare and valuable, but when he opened the door, he was greeted with empty space at first. Confused, he looked around before noticing a large cardboard box sitting in front of the entrance. …a package? This place doesn’t have an address – how could any delivery service ever send something here? Wait…. The four souls that he was sensing were coming from the box. What the hell???

Kneeling down, the bringer of negativity slowly opened the box, staying cautious in case it was a trap. As he peaked inside, he saw four small, sleeping skeletons bunched together. You’ve gotta be kidding. He opened the box completely and stared at the babybone skeletons with anger written all over his face. This can’t be the group that he was expecting – these were just children! His anger only intensified as he processed what was going on, and the realization slowly sank in. That demon must have figured out that he was being tricked and gave him a trick of his own. Instead of giving him a group of monsters that would cause chaos to the multiverse, he gave him a box of children that would bring chaos only to him. Nightmare supposed that he should’ve expected something like this to happen. Playing with demons usually never ended well, but he thought that he could outsmart the demon.

With a frustrated huff, Nightmare decided to take the box inside and close the door. What is he going to do with these brats? He turned away from the box, trying to think of something to do. Wait… maybe this isn’t so bad. Maybe he can make this work out the way he wanted it to after all. It would take a lot more time and work than he wanted, but perhaps they will prove to be even more useful than they would’ve been if they were adults. As children, their minds are a lot easier to manipulate, so he could train them and mold them into the perfect group to cause chaos.

As the evil dark skeleton was thinking, one of the small skeletons in the box yawned and slowly blinked his eyes open. Looking to the opening of the box, he immediately noticed that he and the others weren’t where they were before. “Where are we?” The babybones with a bright red scare on his cheek slowly and cautiously peeked out of the box. Nightmare smirked when he heard the small voice and looked over his shoulder at the child.

“Your new home.”


	2. You're gonna have a bedtime

Getting these boys settled in and teaching them to obey him was proving to be more difficult than Nightmare anticipated. It’s like these skeletons have never had a proper authority figure in their lives, so anytime he tries to reprimand them, they just give him a lazy smirk or a scowl. In only the first day, he’s already learned that they don’t just use one method of causing problems. Each one of them had their own unique way of driving him insane.

The one with a large hole in his skull, Horror, has an insatiable appetite. It seems that he will try to devour anything that even remotely looks edible. Anytime Nightmare summons his tentacles, the little brat immediately pounces on them and tries to chew through them. The skeletons tiny jaws couldn’t even hope to do any damage to the boneless appendages, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying to have something constantly chewing on them. He’ll have to find something for small skeleton to teeth on – maybe a dog’s chew toy. It’s also surprising how this babybone is able to function properly with such a massive injury to his cranium. Perhaps he’s a lot tougher than he looks.

The skeleton that always has the hood of his jacket up with red and blue eye lights, Dust, seems to have an almost uncontrollable urge to attack things. He seems very lazy and uninterested in anything at first glance, but as soon as Nightmare turns his back on him, he’s shooting needle like bone attacks at whatever is closest to him, whether it be alive or not. In only a day, the chair cushions and walls have been littered with many tiny holes from his onslaught. He will need an attack dummy of sorts to keep him occupied and prevent further damages for the older skeleton to repair.

Then there’s the one without eye lights and black streaks running down his cheeks, Killer. His soul is constantly exposed and vulnerable; although, it could be seen as more of a challenge than a vulnerability. It was also misshaped from what a normal monster soul would look like, and it glows red with determination like a human’s. This skeleton seems to have an obsession with knives, particularly stabbing things with them. Nightmare has caught him on several occasions already, trying to climb on the counter and steal one of the kitchen knives from it’s holder. Maybe he can just give him a plastic knife to at least sate his need to hold something sharp. Nightmare doesn’t need another skeleton putting holes in the furniture.

Finally, there’s the black and white clad skeleton with a red scar on his cheek, Cross, was the more vocal one out off all of them, and he has no problem with voicing what he thinks of the larger dark skeleton. He always has a glare on his face, and it’s always pointed to said dark skeleton. He doesn’t seem as volant as the others, but that doesn’t stop Nightmare from being able to sense his malicious intent. Cross always watches with a calculated glare anytime he looks at him, as if he’s planning out a way to strike. There’s no doubt that this one is a natural born strategist, and it’s no question why the others seem to follow his lead, asserting him as their leader.

Nightmare has already figured that if he could gain the loyalty of Cross, then the rest will follow him, but that won’t be easy. The little black and white skeleton has already proven to be quite stubborn and doesn’t trust the larger evil skeleton. It will be a difficult feat to get this one to corporate. But that’s something that Nightmare will have to think about another day, because right now, he’s exhausted. The sun has only just set, and he’s already aching for his bed.

“Alright brats. Bedtime,” he said with a sigh.

Wrapping the boys in his tentacles, he didn’t wait for an answer so that they wouldn’t have the chance to run off.

“We’re not even tired yet,” Cross argued while struggling to get out of the dark appendage’s grip.

“Yeah? Well I’m tired, so we’re ALL going to bed.”

The small skeleton let out a huff, realizing that struggling was pointless – he was no match for Nightmare’s strength. The older skeleton carried the boys into a hallway and set them down. With the same tentacles that he used to carry them, he opened four bedroom doors at the same time.

“Pick a room and go sleep, and if you don’t, then I’ll strap you all down to your beds.”

“Like in a crazy hospital?” Killer perked up and asked at this, seeming truly interested in talking about mental hospital practices.

“…yeah sure, like a crazy hospital. Now enough talking and go to sleep.” With that, the dark skeleton turned and walked down the hallway to the master bedroom. He didn’t bother looking back to make sure they did as they were told and just hoped that he instilled enough fear in them to make them go to bed. As soon as Nightmare was in his room with the door closed behind him, he flopped onto the king-sized bed with a heavy sigh of exhaustion. He knew that taking care of children was hard but looking after little heathen for children seemed much harder. Curling himself under the blankets, he already started dozing off to sleep. Maybe tomorrow would be easier.

Nightmare slowly stirred awake from the sound of a door opening and rustling in the room. He let out a tired hum, as he groggily sat up and looked to see what the noise was about. He froze when he saw small lights staring back at him at the end of the bed. He slowly reached over to the lamp and clicked the light on revealing four tiny skeletons peaking over the foot of them bed. As soon as the light was on, they pounced on him. Nightmare had to restrain him self from lashing out at them with his tentacles and risk doing major damage to them. They couldn’t do any real damage to him – there was only one thing that could and these boys didn’t have it.

“What the hell! What are you brats doing!?” Despite how enraged the evil skeleton was, the boys didn’t seem phased by it and snuggled close to him, or three of them did anyway. The fourth, Cross, just sat next to him on the bed, keeping his distance while also being close enough to the others. The small skeleton crossed his arms with a glare.

“We don’t like sleeping alone,” Cross answered angrily.

“Then why don’t you just sleep with each other?” Nightmare glared right back to the black and white clad babybone.

“None of the beds are big enough for all of us to fit in comfortable, and you have the biggest bed.” Nightmare and Cross now seemed to be having a glaring contest, but they were interrupted by Dust.

“Come on, it’s not like we’re going to do anything, and besides, bad things could happen if we sleep by ourselves…,” Dust had a lazy grin on his face as he spoke, but at his last words, all of their expressions seemed to drop. For the first time since they’ve been here, they actually looked nervous. The fear of the unknown was a powerful one indeed.

Nightmare was tempted to make them sleep alone just because it actually seemed to scare them, but with a sigh, he decided against it. They were not the ones that he wanted to cause negative emotions with, and only four babybones wouldn’t even be as much as a crumb to sate his need for negativity. Looking at all of them for a moment, he relented.

“… fine, but only for tonight. I’ll figure something out for this tomorrow.” Flopping back down on the bed, Nightmare rubbed at one of his temples in frustration as the boys cuddled in. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight.


	3. Breakfast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ended up being longer than I expected XD

Moring light streamed through the crack in the curtains where they didn’t close completely, signaling to Nightmare that it was no longer night, and more importantly, he didn’t get a single wink of sleep the entire night. How could he with four babybone brats cuddling him the entire time? Even Cross, who seemed determined to keep his distance, ended up moving close to him and nuzzling into the sleeve of his jacket in his sleep. Killer had managed to curl himself around Nightmare’s skull like a cat. Horror seems to even chew in his sleep and had spent the whole night chewing on the heme of his jacket. Dust was sprawled out like a bear rug on the larger skeleton’s chest, lazy expression ever present.

Each of the boys were making quiet sounds as the breathed. It wasn’t quite snoring, but it was enough to make a constant noise. After so many hours of this, Nightmare was finally getting to where he could ignore their presence and doze off to sleep, maybe it was the exhaustion finally allowing him to pass out. However, as soon as he closed his eye and dozed off, the boys started shifting and stretching as they woke from their slumber. They mumbled good mornings to each other before shaking the dark skeleton awake.

Reluctantly, Nightmare opened his eye again and glared at them, “what?”

“It’s morning, time to get up sleepy skull.” Dust lazily answered him, an amused lazy smirk on his face.

Without a word, Nightmare sat up, summoning his tentacles to wrap around all of the small skeletons. Cross looked annoyed, but the others didn’t fight it as if getting used to being picked up like this. Tiredly, he carried the boys to the door of the bedroom and nudged them out after releasing them from his hold.

“Alright, then go play or something, but don’t leave the house.” With that, he slammed the door behind them, making it clear that he didn’t want to be bothered by them anymore. While he didn’t like leaving the boys unsupervised, he needed to sleep. Surely the boys could go a few hours without burning the house down. Trudging back to the bed, he flopped back into the blankets with a sigh of relief. Finally, some peace.

* * *

The boys POV

Cross folded his arms and huffed at the audacity of the larger dark skeleton. He’d slammed the door in their faces without even giving them anything to eat. He insists on keeping them there, and yet doesn’t even bother to keep them fed.

“asshole,” he muttered under his breath.

As if reading his mind, Horror chimed in with an all to familiar statement. “I’m hungry.”

The monochrome skeleton has heard this phrase too many times for him to count. While most of the time Horror is the one to speak this, the others have told him this many times as well. Every time he hears this, he has to figure out how he’s going to feed the group for the day. He’ll admit, this place is much better than where they were before if only for the easier access to food. But even that is just betting on the tentacle asshole keeping the kitchen stocked.

With a sigh, Cross took the lead, heading to the kitchen. “Come on, lets see what’s in the kitchen.”

It didn’t take long for them to find food. Opening the fridge revealed that it was completely stocked with all sorts of food. The majority of it was ingredients that would need to be put together and cooked, but there were some items inside that could be used to make sandwiches – a quick and easy meal. But…

Cross glanced over his shoulder at the group as they all stared in awe at the large amount of food in the cold container. They’ve probably never seen such a large variety of food in their lives, let alone a good cooked breakfast. The leading skeleton couldn’t imagine someone living their entire life never knowing what a homecooked meal was or how it felt to eat one. But he knows that his three comrades have never had a family before. No one should have to live without having at least one good meal in their lives, and Cross doesn’t want to pass up this opportunity – he might never get a chance like this again.

Before he could turn back to the fridge, Cross noticed how Horror looked like he was about to pounce in the fridge. Quickly, he blocked the other skeleton’s path and gripped tightly onto his shirt to keep him from advancing to the food.

“Stop! If you eat everything in sight, then you’ll make yourself sick.” Cross said as he tried to get the ravenous skeleton to look at him. “You’ll get to eat soon. Trust me, having a cooked meal will taste a lot better than cold ingredients.”

Dust stepped in and took hold of Horror in place of Cross. He mumbled to the hungry skeleton, trying to get him to calm down as he fought get free. It’s become a common practice for Dust to calm Horror when he’s hungry ever since an incident happened. There was one day that Cross wasn’t able to find enough food for the group, and Horror couldn’t stand being hungry, so he snuck away while the group was sleeping to find food on his own. When the group found him, he was fighting with a racoon over a half-eaten slice of moldy pizza.

At first, Dust and Killer thought that whole ordeal was funny and even encouraged Horror to kill the racoon, but Cross was pissed. He managed the scare the animal away from his friend, but the damage had already been done. Horror was completely covered in scratches and bites marks. Dust still didn’t see the problem and even had the gall to try to tell Cross that it was no big deal. It a fit of rage, the monochrome skeleton yelled at the hooded one, telling him that their friend could die of rabies now that they let this happen to him. That quickly silenced Dust. From then on, Dust has been the one to care for Horror if he’s hungry, keeping him calm and preventing him from running off.

With Horror taken care of, Cross quickly grabbed the ingredients that he wanted: a carton of eggs and a pack of bacon. Killer helped him to push a chair over to the stove to stand on. Once the fridge was closed, Dust let go of Horror and climbed onto the counter, sitting on the edge lazily. There were some pans hanging on the wall next to the stove. When Dust noticed Cross looking at a pan, reached over and grabbed one for him, placing it on the stove. Cross stood in the chair, so he was directly in front of the cooking device. He placed some pieces of bacon into the pan and turned on the heat, but only halfway as he wasn’t sure how high it should be.

Dust reached for the knob and turned it to the max setting. “Make it higher so it cooks faster.”

Cross had never cooked before, so he didn’t know if having the stove on the max setting was good or not, so he didn’t say anything or change it back.

* * *

Back to Nightmare’s POV

Nightmare stirred away as smoke filled his senses. Still groggy from sleep, it takes him a few moments to piece things together. Smoke? Did he leave the fireplace going? No, it wasn’t cold out, so he never lit it in the first place. He’s the only one here, so how could there be a fire? Wait no, … the boys were here… and he let them go play unsupervised. Are they actually burning the house down!?

Flinging the blankets off of him, Nightmare teleported to the source of the smoke. He appeared in the kitchen – the boys were standing around the stove, a fire blazing in a pan, and Cross had a glass of water in his hands, most likely to try to douse the flames. They all froze when he appeared.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” As the enraged skeleton yelled, the glass in Cross’s hands fell and shattered on the floor.

“SCATTER!” At Cross’s command, the small skeletons sprinted in every direction. The confusion allowed three to escape, but the monochrome skeleton wasn’t so lucky. A tentacle wrapped around his angle, stopping his escape.

Another tentacle wrapped around Cross’s waist, allowing for a better grip as he was pulled closer to the dark evil skeleton. Before reprimanding the boy, Nightmare took a lid for the pan and put it over the flames, effectively smothering them. Now with the fire taken care of, his glare was directed at the tiny skeleton in his grasp.

“What the hell were you thinking!? And were you going to pour water on that? Water only makes a grease fire worse!” The larger skeleton hissed at the smaller.

“How was I supposed to know that!? I’ve never cooked before!” The small skeleton hissed right back.

“Then why were you cooking in the first place!?”

“I had to do something, because YOU weren’t going to feed us!”

“Then you could’ve made something that didn’t need to be cooked!”

Cross was shaking with rage now. “I didn’t do that because I wanted them to have a good cooked meal for once in their lives instead of GARBAGE ON THE STREET!”

Nightmare blinked at that with confusion. “What are you talking about? Are you telling me that you’ve never had a cooked meal in your life?”

“I have, but THEY haven’t.” Cross looked away from him now, still shaking in his hold. He was now glaring daggers at the floor… and there were little drops of fluid forming at the edges of his sockets.

Oh no.

Nightmare didn’t know what to do about a crying kid. Do something before it starts!

The larger skeleton let out a sharp sound of frustration as he put the babybones down. “Fine, I’ll cook breakfast.”

The small skeleton’s angry-sad expression was now replaced with complete bewilderment. The look he was giving the dark skeleton was like he was trying to solve a complex puzzle. Nightmare didn’t pay him anymore attention as he move the chair out of the way of the stove and set the smoldering pan to the side, replacing it with a new one. He’d deal with the burnt bits of food later, for now he got to work cooking bacon and eggs for the boys.

As he worked, Cross had climbed into the chair that now sat beside the stove and watched the older skeleton work. Not long into the cooking, the other boys meandered back into the kitchen, likely drawn to the smell of cooking food that wasn’t charred. Nightmare flinched as Killer grabbed onto his jacket and climbed up his back to peek over his shoulder. Dust and Horror climbed onto the counter and hovered close to the pan, watching the food. They were all crowding him now, igniting his frustration again.

A tentacle wrapped around each small skeleton and placed them in the chairs at the dinning table. “Just sit at the table until it’s done.”

A small “aw” escaped Horror as he sank into his chair with a little pout, but Nightmare ignored it. Once the food was cooked and plated, he sat each plate in front of the boys along with some silverware, finally allowing them to eat. With that finished, he turned on the coffee pot and sat at the head of the table as he waited for the coffee to brew. He doesn’t usually drink coffee, but it was clear now that he can’t take his eye off the boys for even a few minutes, so he would need to stay awake.

The boys waisted no time digging into their food, Horror more vigorously than the others. The larger skeleton curled his lip up a bit as the mangled child ate with only his hands, completely ignoring the silverware. He stared wondering if the boys even know how to use utensils, but it seemed that they did, since the others were using theirs. Horror seemed to be the only one who ate like an animal.

The babybones seem to be satisfied now, remaining mostly quiet as they ate. Nightmare opened his maw in a yawn, expressing his exhaustion. Killer seemed to perk up as he saw the larger skeleton’s fully exposed teeth. He stared for a moment but then went back to his meal without a word, likely storing some information for later. To this, Nightmare sighed.

It was going to be a long day.


	4. Punishment

After a week of looking after the boys, Nightmare has learned a few things. For instance, the boys seem to have boundless energy some days and can’t make themselves sit still. Even when all the noise and yelling from them drove him to tell them to sit still and stay quiet, they couldn’t do it. A skill that he is starting to learn is how to tune them out while also keeping an ‘ear’ out for if they do something that they shouldn’t.

Today is one of those days.

Despite the house being large enough to be called a mansion, it was still filled with the sounds of tiny boney feet clicking against the wood floor as they ran through the hallways, or little thumps as they ran though carpeted floor of bedrooms. Occasionally, they would run though the living room, where Nightmare was currently reading a book, but they wouldn’t even glance at him as they ran straight out. They seemed to be playing a game where they chase each other all around the house and if a certain one touches one of them, then they would yell “tag” and then they would all run from that one.

Nightmare hummed as he remembered that game. It seems like it’s been eons, since he last saw children play it. It’s funny how a game that was invited centuries ago still seems to entertain children to no end to this day. He quickly stopped that train of thought. Thinking of days long ago would bring back memories that he would prefer to keep buried in the depths of his mind. After all, those are only just memories of a past that’s long behind him. Everything is different now - HE is different now. There’s no way to change the past, so why dwell on it.

During the week, Nightmare has decided to add a few new books to his library: “How to Care for Children” and “How to Discipline Children.” He was currently reading one of those books now as he tried to ignore the sounds of the boys playing. It’s already been made clear that the babybones are fragile, so disciplining them with pain would risk doing serious damage to them, especially if Nightmare is very angry and has a lot of intent to hurt. Hurting them could drive them farther away from trusting him than they already are.

Unfortunately, the book suggests a lot of things that the dark skeleton does not want to do. He promptly skipped over the pages about hugging and comforting the children. The goal isn’t to make the boys love him – he wants them to see him as their authority figure. Showing them so much affection won’t achieve the results that he wants. He wants them to obey him without question no matter the command. He doesn’t understand how showing them love will make them obey him – showing them LOVE, however, seems like a much better way.

Nightmare was jolted from his thoughts from a loud smash in the house. There’s no question as to what happened – the boys broke something while playing. He quickly closed the book, setting it to the side as he got up from his seat.

“BOYS!”

Before giving them any time to react to his call, the enraged skeleton teleported to the source of the sound. The boys were in the hallway, surrounding the decrepit remains of a shattered vase that once stood on a table in the hall as decoration. The boys immediately noticed the dark shadow looming over them.

“SCATTER!” Cross yelled.

Fortunately for Nightmare, he saw this coming. Before the boys could get far, his tentacles shot out to each one of them, effectively snaring them. He brought the boys up close to his angry snarl, allowing them to see has rage more clearly. “Do you boys have anything to say for yourselves before your inevitable punishment?”

“um.. sorry?” Dust gave a lazy shrug with a grin to match.

“It was just a dumb vase. You can just get a new one.” Cross said as he glared at the floor.

“That ‘dumb vase’ was one of a kind. It’s irreplaceable!” Nightmare gave Cross a little shake to make him look at him.

“That doesn’t make it any less dumb. I don’t know why you care so much about it – it was useless. It just sat there all the time, doing nothing.” Cross was now glaring at Nightmare countering his own.

Nightmare took in a breath and let it out slowly, deciding to drop the argument. How could he expect a child to understand? The only things that children care about is food and playing.

“It doesn’t matter what you think of it – you’re getting punished for breaking it either way.” With that, Nightmare took them to the living room. In his book, he read that one method of punishing children is to make them stay in a corner, so he sat the boys down in one of the corners of the living room. Now of course, Nightmare didn’t expect them to just stay there if he told them to – they would just run away the moment he wasn’t looking. He took out some duct tape with an evil grin on his face.

“I know you boys aren’t just going to stay in this corner if I tell you to, so I’ll just attach you to it.”

“you can’t be serious.” Cross gave him a flat and judging expression.

“I’m very serious.”

Keeping the boys restrained as he worked, he managed to wrap them up into little cocoons of duct tape. Only their heads and feet were still visible when Nightmare was done. After giving a chuckle at how defeated the boys looked, he turned away form them and went back to his chair to read. As the hours ticked by, it was clear that making them not able to move was near torture for the boys. They constantly wiggled or swung their feet, trying to get some sort of movement. Occasionally, they would mumble to each other, but they never spoke to the evil skeleton until it was time for dinner.

“Hey, we’re hungry,” Cross called to Nightmare from across the room.

Nightmare looked up at them over the monocle that rested on his cheek bone. Since he only has one eye, he uses a monocle when reading. “That’s too bad, because you’re not getting dinner.”

Horror quickly looked at the larger skeleton when you heard his words, his red eye light shrinking in his socket. “You’re gonna starve us??”

Nightmare only gave Horror a smirk, knowing that food is his weakness. “well maybe you should’ve thought about that before being so reckless.”

Cross now looked horrified at the situation, and Dust, who usually had a lazy smirk on his face, was now glaring at Nightmare. There was a long silence of them just staring at him until Horror’s sockets filled with tears and he started sniffling. He was now looking at the ground as big drops of tears dripped down his cheeks. Nightmare ignored his crying and went back to reading his book.

“I did it.” Dust spoke up before the older skeleton got a chance to read a sentence in his book. Nightmare was startled by this, quickly looking back up from his book and furrowing his browbone at Dust.

“I broke the vase, so let them go eat and leave me here.” Is he sacrificing himself the save the others?

Cross was looking at Dust now with a bit of shock, but it only lasted a moment as he quickly looked at the darker skeleton. “No, I did it! Make me stay and let them go.”

This was unexpected… Nightmare could only stare at them speechless and bewildered. These five-year-olds were willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of the others. Could someone so young even comprehend something like that? And why is this making him feel something that he can’t even describe!? Now the evil skeleton was getting frustrated, more so at himself than at the boys for letting them catch him off guard like that and making him feel something in response.

With a frustrated sigh, which ended up sounding more like a hiss, Nightmare slapped the book he was reading closed and went over to the boys. They slightly shrunk back at his silent approach, but Cross and Dust held their glares, nonetheless. Their glares quickly changed to confusion as the larger skeleton let all of them go.

“…what are you doing?” Cross asked as he watched Nightmare turn away from them and head to the kitchen. They all remained where they stood.

“Just be quiet and come sit at the table until dinner is ready.”

A tiny gasp left Horror at Nightmare’s statement. He still had tears on his cheeks, but regardless of that, a big smile spread across his face as he quickly ran to sit at the table. Dust and Killer followed after Horror, but Cross remained where he was. Was this asshole showing mercy? No, that couldn’t be it, but then what made him change his mind like that?

“hey, you coming?” Killer had stopped at the doorway to the living room, looking back at Cross. Cross only nodded and followed the others to the table.

As Nightmare cooked dinner, he couldn’t help but think to himself now that it was quiet, and the boys were actually sitting at the table like he told them to. He’s seen many people try to sacrifice themselves to end his tyranny on their worlds before, and everyone of them was ignored as he continued his torture. Everyone of them were adults who understood pain and suffering and didn’t want their families to experience that. He’s never seen a five-year-old who didn’t care about anyone but themselves, especially when it came to allowing themselves to be hurt or not.

Why are these boys any different?


	5. Storytime

Now that the boys have been living with Nightmare for a little while, they’ve started to become more confident around him. Cross still glares at the dark skeleton, but even he has been getting more relaxed and has taken to playing with his brothers a lot without keeping an eye on their guardian. Killer was possibly the first one to start showing signs that he enjoyed the evil skeleton’s company, while not trying to eat him. While Killer has always had no problem with climbing on Nightmare, he never really seemed to be clingy as he is now.

This behavior from Killer first stared after he had an accident in the kitchen. He was trying to climb onto the counter to get to the knives while Nightmare was reading a newspaper. Of course, the larger skeleton knew what he was up to and told him to stop climbing on the counter without even looking at him, but it must’ve startled the little skeleton, because he slipped and fell soon after. The fall resulted in a small crack on his knee from colliding with the hard kitchen floor.

Nightmare told the boy that if he would’ve listened to him, then he wouldn’t have gotten hurt. The dark skeleton’s lack of sympathy caused the babybone to start tearing up at his sockets. This was back before Nightmare learned to just ignore them when they cry, so he decided to act and prevent the boy from shedding any tears. He took him to the bathroom where he kept a first aid kit and bandaged his knee. Ever since then, Killer has been actively trying to get closer to Nightmare. He once even crawled into his lap one day and started trying to poke at his fangs, which lead to the larger skeleton yelling at him.

Currently, Nightmare is in his library, reading one of many books. Despite what he has become, he still enjoys reading. Over the few hundred years, he’s gathered quiet the collections of books and had to dedicate one room in the mansion specifically for them, turning it into a small library. As he read his book, he could hear the sounds of the boys playing in one of the rooms upstairs. Since he has so many unused rooms, he decided that it would be fine for the boys to play in whichever room they want, as long as they stay out of Nightmare’s room.

From the corner of his eye, Nightmare saw the door to the library slowly open and close from where he was sitting in his reading chair. Seems one of the boys decided to leave the game going on upstairs. Not to Nightmare’s surprise, Killer quietly walked up to him and crawled into his lap, pushing his arm out of the way when the larger skeleton didn’t move it for him. The dark skeleton watched the small boy as he sat in his lap, making sure he wasn’t going to try to poke at his face again. When Killer only sat and looked at the book he was reading, Nightmare looked back to the book as well.

As Killer looked at the pages, he didn’t seem to be focusing on the words very much. He constantly looked back and forth between the pages as if trying to decipher a dead language. Nightmare tried to ignore him, but that was proving difficult with his small skull now blocking the pages as he leaned closer to the book. Before Nightmare could tell him to move, he leaned away from the book and looked up at the larger skeleton.

“read to me?” Killer looked excited as he asked this. He must like stories.

Nightmare looked from the child to the book in his hands and back again. “No, I don’t think you would like this book very much anyway. It’s made for adults, so there’s lots of big words that you wouldn’t understand.”

Closing the book, Nightmare moved the small skeleton from his lap so that he could stand. He walked over to the shelves filled with books – Killer following close behind him. He ran a finger on the spines of the books as he searched until he found what he was looking for. Pulling the book form the shelf, he gave it to the babybone.

“This is a popular children’s book written by monsters. Apparently, adults even like this one, but I’m not sure why, since it’s for children.”

He watched as Killer took the book and sat down on the floor to open it. He seemed to like all the colorful pictures on each of the pages, but he didn’t seem to be reading the words. He just flipped though it and only looked at the pictures without really understanding what was happening.

“Aren’t you going to read what it says?” Nightmare couldn’t understand why someone would only look at the pictures without reading what they’re supposed to be illustrating.

Killer looked up when Nightmare spoke to him. “I can’t. Can you read it to me?”

“You don’t know how to read?” Nightmare ignored the question for now to ask questions of his own. “Do you at least know the alphabet?”

“What’s an alphabet?” Killer tilted his head in confusion.

Nightmare only stared at the child for a moment in disbelief. How could he not know the alphabet? He’s 5 – he should at least know that by now.

“Do your bothers know how to read?” Nightmare asked, hoping at least one of them knew how to read or at least the basics.

“I dunno.” Killer shrugged as he answered.

Nightmare gave a little sigh as he picked up the children’s book that Killer had open on the floor. “Come on, let’s go ask them.”

Nightmare lead the way as he and Killer went upstairs to the room the boys were playing in. It seems that the other three were still playing as the sounds of their voices for imaginary characters could be heard from the other side of the door. As soon as the larger skeleton stepped into the room, the boys stopped talking and looked at him.

Nightmare opened the children’s book to a random page and pointed to the words. “Can any of you read this?”

The boys gathered around the book curiously. Horror and Dust just stared at the words in confusion, but Cross seemed to be concentrating as he furrowed his browbone.

“T-the fluf-fy bun-ny w… went to …” Cross was cut off as Nightmare held up his hand, signaling for him to stop.

“Well, at least one of you knows the basics, and I assume the rest of you don’t know the alphabet like Killer?”

Cross glared at Nightmare as he seemed to be insulting his brother’s intelligence. “And I assume you’re just a freak by nature?”

Nightmare shot a glare back at Cross. “Watch it.”

Dust spoke up before any arguments could start. “The people at the orphanage said that demons aren’t worth the time to teach.”

Demons? Sure, the boys are several tentacles full to deal with, but he wouldn’t call them demons. After all, he actually knows what a demon is, and these boys aren’t it. Shaking his head, Nightmare decided not to ask about this orphanage, even though it didn’t line up with what Cross had said before about them eating garbage off the streets. Were they in an orphanage or on the streets? He decided to save the questions for later; besides, he didn’t think they would trust him enough to tell him their life story anyway.

“Alright, I’ll teach you how to read, since it’s a very important skill to learn if you want to do just about anything,” he said with a sigh. He already had to teach them to obey him, but now he has to teach them to read on top of that.

“Why do we have to learn how to read? We’ve gotten by just fine without it.” Dust spoke up again. It seems that he would prefer to be lazy than learn an important skill.

“Well, some of the things that you will have to do for me will require you to be able to read.”

Before Nightmare could continue, Cross cut in. “Wait, you want us to do things for you? We’re not your slaves. What are you even expecting us to do?”

“Ok, enough, we’re not talking about that right now. Reading is important and not just because of what I want. You need to be able to read so that you can follow directions or read a book on your own without relying on someone else to do it all the time.” Cross looked at the floor as he saw that Nightmare had a point. It would make life a lot easier if they knew how to read. He decided to stay quiet about Nightmare using them for something for now, but he will remember this.

“soooo… does that mean you’re going to read the story to us now?” Killer pipped in. The poor boy has been waiting this whole time for someone to read him a story. With a sigh, Nightmare turned and headed for the door.

“Fine, it will probably be easier for you to learn if you see how the words should be pronounced, but you need to pay attention to the words as I read them.” Nightmare started heading back to the library – Killer happily following behind him, but it wasn’t just his footsteps that could be heard. It seems that the others want to listen to a story too, even Cross is going along.

As they walked, Horror eyed Nightmare’s back. “So, how come your meat thingies go away sometimes?”

“They’re called tentacles, and it’s because I don’t need them all the time.” Nightmare didn’t want to go into detail about his biology right now.

“How come you have fangs and we don’t?” It seemed that the first question encouraged a second one from Killer.

“It’s because I’m older than you, now be quiet.”

“WAIT! So we will have fangs too!? When?” Killer didn’t seem to listen when Nightmare told him to be quiet. He seems very excited about knowing that he will have fangs too one day.

Nightmare sighed with frustration. “Yes, when you’re older. No more questions.” Monster biology doesn’t seem like a good subject to talk about right now. They are still young, and there is a lot of stuff that they are too young to know about. Ugh, just thinking about giving them the talk when they grow up is making Nightmare cringe.

There was silence for a while as they walked, but then Horror spoke again. “But… where do they go?”

Nightmare stopped and looked at him. “What?”

“The meat thingies.”

“They’re tentacles and none of your business. Didn’t I say no more questions?”

“But you asked a question too,” Dust said with a grin.

“Ok, either you all stop talking, or no one gets a story.”

Everyone stayed quiet for the rest of the walk after that. Once they were in the library, Nightmare sat back down in his reading chair. Killer quickly climbed into his lap, and Horror followed after him. Cross and Dust opted to sit on the armrests of the chair – Dust leaning against Nightmare’s shoulder and Cross keeping his distance with his arms crossed.

Once everyone was settled in, Nightmare started reading The Adventures of Fluffy Bunny to them. Since it was just a children’s book, it was short and only took a few minutes to read through the whole thing. The boys did anything but focus on how to say the words, and by the end of it, they were starting to fall asleep. Even Cross was struggling to keep himself from dozing off. Nightmare glanced up at the clock – it was getting late, so they should probably be put to bed anyway.

Wrapping a tentacle around each of the boys, he carried them to their shared room. Since they don’t like sleeping alone, Nightmare got them two bunk beds, so they could sleep in the same room. He remembered which beds they picked when he first got them and put them in each one accordingly – he even pulled the blankets over them, since it seemed they were too lazy to even do that. Killer was the top bunk on the left, Cross bottom left, Dust top right, Horror bottom right.

As Nightmare was leaving, Killer quickly sat up. “Wait, what about goodnight kisses?”

Nightmare froze in the doorway and turned to look back at Killer with his browbone furrowed. Was this a joke? But Killer looked completely serious. “…No”

With that, the light was turned off and the door was closed. A “tch” was heard in the dark room from Cross’s bed. He quickly got up and climbed up to Killer’s bed. He looked angry, but he quickly gave Killer a peck on the forehead.

Killer furrowed his brow at him. “ew…,” he said as he wiped at the spot on his head.

“Shut up,” Cross said angrily. He proceeded to do the same thing with Dust and Horror, both giving him the same confused look. Once he was done, he went back to his own bed.

“Goodnight, guys.” Cross said with a small sigh.


	6. The Crown

The boys’ POV

Nightmare hasn’t been yelling at the boys as much lately. He must be getting used to how the boys behave, or they are getting used to what he wants from them. Just the thought of them having to adapt to what that asshole wants makes Cross grit his teeth in frustration, but what choice do they have? Despite the evil skeleton, this place is still much better than where they were before – at least here they don’t have to wonder if they will get to eat every day. The kitchen is always filled with food, even though Cross has never seen the older skeleton leave this place. He must be going out while they aren’t looking or when they sleep.

Even thought this place is better than where they were before, it still isn’t a home. Nightmare could never be the parent that they need, and at this point, Cross is starting to wonder if there even is a good parent out there who could love them and accept them despite their differences from normal children. Nightmare has mentioned before that he wants to use them for something, so he clearly isn’t keeping them around so that he can be a parent. What could he want from them? They’re just children, so what could they possibly do for him? Maybe he’s planning to use them the same way the others did.

Cross’ thoughts were interrupted when Dust gave him a hard smack on the back. “Hey, you think too much. You’ve had the same serious look on your face for the past few minutes. Take a break every once in a while.”

Dust was giving him a lazy grin from where he sat. They were both sitting on the bed in one of the rooms that isn’t being used. Nightmare doesn’t seem to care that they’ve been using these rooms as play areas. Why does he need so many though? Is he planning on having more people here? Cross just sighed at Dust.

“Someone has to pay attention to everything that’s going on, and I know that none of you will, so I don’t have time for breaks.”

Dust just shook his head at him and have him a little push on his shoulder. “Come on, you’ve been like this since we first got here. You’re gonna get those dark circle things under your eyes like cartoon characters get when they obsess over something.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll just have to deal with that. It’s better than allowing something bad to happen.” Cross gave Dust a push back.

“pfft, nothing bad is going to happen. If it was going to happen, then it would’ve already. We’ve been here for… I don’t know, several days now.”

“It’s been 3 weeks.”

“Wow and look at that. Nothing has happened.” Dust gave him a playful smirk to go with his sarcasm.

Cross just rolled his eye lights at him and looked to Killer and Horror, who were play fighting on the floor. Dust may be right, but that doesn’t mean that nothing could still happen. Nightmare could just be luring them into a trap or something, trying to gain their trust so that they will blindly do what he wants. Maybe he even intends for them to trust him so much that they would sacrifice themselves for him.

Killer seems to have lost interest in the fight as he just pushed Horror away so that he could look around the room for something else to entertain him. Horror didn’t seem bothered by this and decided to pull Dust off of the bed to continue playing. Killer decided to inspect the closet and see if maybe something was inside this one. All the other rooms had empty closets, but maybe this time he would find something.

When Killer first opened the closet, he was disappointed at how it seemed to be just as barren as all the others, but then the gleam of something at the back corner caught his eye. He crawled inside to find a golden crown just laying on the floor as if someone just tossed it inside this closet without a care. A large grin spread across the small skeleton’s face as he marveled at the golden artifact, turning it around in his hands to see that there was a crescent moon shape on the front.

The little skeleton quickly dashed out of the closet and climbed onto the bed, pushing Cross off in the process. He ignored the angry “Hey!” Cross shouted at him when he landed on the floor. Killer yanked the sheet off of the bed and tied it around his neck like a cape then put the crown on as he turned to looked down on his brothers.

“Behold! I am your new king! Bow to me peasants!” Killer was standing tall as he showed off the prize he found in the closet. The crown was far too big for the child, so it hung lopsided on his skull. The boys just stared at him for a moment, admiring the shiny head piece.

“Pfft, YOU’RE the king? What makes you think that you get to be the king?” Dust gave Killer a challenging grin.

Killer only pointed to the crown on his head. “I have the crown, so that makes me the king.”

“And what if one of us takes the crown from you?” Cross asked with a browbone raised.

Killer reached into his pocket and pulled out a toy knife with an evil grin on his face. “You’ll have to fight me to the death if you want the crown.”

Cross glanced over to Horror and Dust who seemed ready to accept that challenge, so he quickly spoke up before any fighting could start. “Alright, you’re the king, but we’re not gonna bow down to you.” The monochrome skeleton knew that when they fight over something they want, it’s a lot different than play fighting. They get serious and could hurt each other.

“aww, but you have to – it’s the rules. Peasants have to bow to the king.” Killer looked disappointed that they weren’t going to play along.

“well if we’re peasants, then that would make you a peasant too, since we’re brothers.” Dust spoke up with a smirk.

“oh… then maybe you guys would be princes?” Killer grabbed at his chin as he thought.

“No, princes are the children of kings, and we aren’t your children.” Cross corrected him.

Before the boys could think about what they would be any farther, the door to the room opened as Nightmare walked in. “Boys, it’s time for-“ He suddenly stopped when he saw the crown on Killer’s head.

“…where did you get that?” Nightmare’s voice took a dark and intimidating tone.

“…found it.” Killer was giving him a neutral look while the others stared at Nightmare with confusion.

Nightmare was suddenly right in front of Killer and yanked the crown off of his head. “This is not a toy! Don’t ever touch this again!”

There was a long silence as the boys just stared at him in shock until Horror spoke. “Why?”

Nightmare looked at the boys for a moment before turning away to leave. “It’s time for dinner. Go sit at the table.”

Cross glared at his back as he left the room, but he didn’t say anything for now. He would wait until later to ask about this.

* * *

Nightmare’s POV

Damn it…. Damn it Damn it Damn it!

How could he be so careless as to forget that his crown was in one of the rooms? He remembers now that he had thrown it into one of the rooms’ closets in a fit of rage, because it reminded him too much about his past. It reminded him of his brother. He didn’t want to think about the past with his brother anymore – it would only distract him from his goal. It would distract him from what he would have to do when his brother is freed from his stone prison.

Nightmare was alone in his room now, just staring at the crown in his hands. It still looked the same as the day he threw it away, not a scratch on it. He could see his reflection in the flawless gold, and for a split second he thought he saw what he used to look like. As he saw himself, he could also see his twin in himself – they were both identical back then except for their eye color.

Gritting his teeth at the unwanted image, Nightmare quickly opened the drawer to his nightstand and threw the crown inside, locking it in so that no one would be able to easily get to it again. His hands stayed on the closed drawer a moment longer as he stared at it with a blank expression. When the moment passed, he pushed himself away from it and left to go join the boys for dinner.

The boys were eating quietly at the table now. Nightmare sat at the head of the table as usual, but he didn’t have a plate of food for himself, since he didn’t need to eat. He just had a cup of tea sitting next to him, and he would occasionally take a sip of it as he read a newspaper. Cross didn’t seem to be eating like the others – he was just poking at his food and glancing at the older skeleton every now and then, working up the courage to ask him something.

“so… what’s with the crown?” Cross asked as he looked at the dark skeleton from the corner of his eye.

Nightmare looked over his monocle at the boy speaking to him with a stern expression, but he kept his voice calm. “It’s nothing. Forget about it.”

“Must be a pretty important ‘nothing’ for you to freak out about it like that.”

A loud slam made Cross jump in his seat and all of the boys, even Horror, stopped eating to look at the source of the sound. Nightmare had slammed his fist against the table and was now glaring at Cross. Silence filled the room for a moment before Nightmare spoke again. “Just… eat your dinner.”

The boys stared at the larger skeleton for a moment longer before they slowly returned to eating. Cross still only poked at his food as he thought. He decided that he would have to ask again another day. Nightmare was too angry right now to give him any answers.

He won’t forget this.


	7. Important

Ever since the incident with Nightmare’s crown happened, Cross has been watching him very closely. The older skeleton can tell that he’s trying to find an opportunity to ask him questions without his brothers around, probably because he doesn’t want the others to hear them arguing. Because of this, Nightmare has been actively avoiding the monochrome skeleton unless the others are there. He doesn’t want to hear his questions or try to come up with some kind of answer for them. It’s bad enough that the others ask him a lot of questions about his body – he doesn’t need questions that might relate to his brother on top of that. To be fair, the questions about his body could slightly relate to his brother, since it ended up this way back when he was still around, and the apples relate to him as well, but Cross isn’t the one asking those questions. If he were, he would try to get more out of him than a vague answer that seems to satisfy the others.

The dark skeleton was hoping that by avoiding Cross, then he would eventually forget about the incident or let it go like most kids his age. However, he has been relentless in his endeavors, and he’s starting to become bolder – even attempting to follow him all the way to his room some days. Nightmare has often had to pick up his pace when he would sense the small skeleton tailing him down hallways. Thus far, ever attempt to catch the larger skeleton alone has failed as he has either made it to his room and locked the door before Cross could catch him, or he would get to one of the brothers. Why must he be so persistent? It was just a stupid crown – there is not need for all of this.

Now Nightmare is heading to his room after putting the boys to bed. Killer hasn’t asked for “goodnight kisses,” since he said no to it. At least one of the boys knows when to quit. As he walked down the hall, he could sense the door to the boys’ bedroom opening and the little footsteps of boney feet after it. There was not doubt that it was Cross, trying to catch up to him again. It was too late in the night for this, so Nightmare picked up his pace as usual without even bothering to keep track of the boy – he would just try to chase directly after him as always. Just like every other time the boy would try to catch him as he headed to his room, the older skeleton made it there before the young skeleton could catch him, and he swiftly locked the door behind him so no one could enter.

The evil skeleton sighed with relief as he turned away from the door – another successful escape. But he suddenly froze when he looked into the room. There standing in the center of his room was none other than Cross himself. How? How did he get in here? Nightmare knew that he beat him to his room, so there’s no way that he got here before him. As he contemplated this, he glanced passed the boy and saw that the grate to the ventilation system was removed and the screws that held it in place were missing. He actually crawled through the vents to get to him? But how did he remove the screws if they’re on the outside? The larger skeleton narrowed his eyes at the boy as he realized that he must’ve been in his room while he was away and removed the screws beforehand. He planed this.

“What do you think you’re doing, Cross. Get out.” There was a low growl to Nightmare’s voice as he glared at the boy.

“Not until you answer my questions.” Cross had his hand in one of his pockets as he stood his ground.

“You think I can’t throw you out?” As he said this, Nightmare extended a tentacle towards the little skeleton, ready to grab him and toss him out of the room. Before he could even touch Cross, the boy quickly pulled a large kitchen knife from his pocket and sliced the tip off of the boneless appendage.

Nightmare quickly jerked his tentacle back. “YOU LITTLE SHIT! YOU DARE ATTACK ME?!” The knife was clearly one of the ones from the kitchen. He’d been so focused on keeping Killer away from them that he didn’t even think to keep Cross away as well. The boy didn’t seem like the type to care about knives like Killer.

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily.” Cross had his knife ready for another attack if the larger skeleton attempted to grab him again.

His rage and the damage dealt to his tentacle caused Nightmare’s other appendages to summon and writhe behind him, ready to attack if he commanded it. However, he couldn’t attack the boy. If he did, he might kill him. Cross must be aware of this if he was confident enough to actually attack him. He’s using the fact that Nightmare wants them alive against him. He could easily just take the knife away from him, but that would risk losing the tip of another tentacle, and the older skeleton doesn’t want to deal with this right now.

Nightmare turned to leave the room – he would rather sleep in one of the extra bedrooms than deal with this. Cross wasn’t going to let him go that easily as he followed close behind him.

“Why can’t you just answer my questions?” Cross spoke as he followed the dark skeleton down the hall.

“If it’s nothing important, then why are you avoiding it so much? You yelled at Killer for wearing a crown that was just tossed into a closet like junk. It wasn’t even in YOU’RE closet! Anytime we try to ask you simple questions, you get mad and tell us to stop asking, or you just give us a vague answer. You even yelled at us over a stupid vase that you didn’t even care about!”

Nightmare continued to ignore the boy’s questioning as he looked for a bedroom to sleep in. He would make sure to keep Cross from following him inside, and he doubted that he removed the screws on all the vents, so he shouldn’t be able to get in that way.

Cross glared at Nightmare’s back when he refused to answer him. “You act like taking care of us is such a burden to you. You wouldn’t even feed us the first day we were here and then got mad when we tried to feed ourselves. You even act like teaching us how to read isn’t worth your time.”

Still, Nightmare wouldn’t answer. In a fit of rage, Cross yelled something that would risk him and his brothers losing this shelter and access to food. “Why do you even keep us around if we’re such a bother to you?!”

His last words caused Nightmare to finally turn and answer him with an enraged expression of his own. “BECAUSE YOU’RE IMORTANT TO ME! CAN’T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?!” This made Cross freeze in place with wide eyes as he stared in shock. This was the last thing he expected from the evil skeleton. Sure, he expected him to end up yelling at him, but he didn’t expect him to admit to caring about them. He couldn’t really care about them, could he?

“You’re more important than some dumb vase, or stupid crown, or burnt food! All of those things can easily be replaced, but you can’t! I can’t just go out and get another group of kids and expect them to be the same. All the kids in the world couldn’t even amount to how valuable you are!” This was mostly true. Nightmare could easily go and kidnap another group of kids, but the difference would be that they would try to run away and go back to their families or homes. This group actually seems to want to stay here, as if they have nowhere left to go. There’s also the fact that he used up a once in a lifetime deal to get these kids, and he’s not going to let it go to waist.

Cross seemed to be stunned to silence as he only stared at Nightmare. The larger skeleton didn’t seem to want to wait for him to respond anyway as he entered one of the extra bedrooms. “Just go back to bed.”

With that, Nightmare closed and locked the door, preventing the monochrome boy from following him or asking anymore questions. Cross stared at the door for a moment before he slowly walked back to his and his brothers’ room. He was quiet as he entered and closed the door behind him – the others were asleep, so he didn’t want to wake them. Crawling into bed and pulling the covers over himself, he just stared at the bottom of the bunk above him for a long time, thinking about the things that Nightmare said.

He couldn’t really care about them, right? He had to have meant it in a different way, like their just objects to him, right? Maybe he could talk to Dust about this at some point. While Dust wasn’t the best at giving advice, since his solutions to most things is to either kill the problem or sleep, he was still one of the smarter ones in the group. He may even be smarter than Cross, but he’s just too lazy to actually use his intelligence in a productive way. He’d probably rather use it to find new ways to kill things.

For now, Cross would just assume that Nightmare was just referring to them as objects.


	8. Brother

The boys’ POV

Despite how old this giant house looks; it actually has a lot of stuff in it from the current generation. The design of the rooms and some of the furniture reminds Cross of some of the abandoned houses he and his brothers would find sometimes when they would look for shelter. However, everything else about this place seems new. How long as Nightmare had this house? How old is he? Sometimes it’s hard to tell if he’s an old man or just a regular adult. He sometimes talks about things like a grandpa would, but then he goes back to acting like a younger adult. It’s confusing, but then again, when has he ever not been confusing?

One of the devices in the house that often gets the boys’ attention is the TV. Nightmare seems to only use it to watch boring stuff like the news, and he won’t let the boys change the channel or turn it on when they want to watch cartoons. He said something about hearing that cartoons are used to brainwash kids or something, but has he ever even watched a cartoon? How could he be sure about something like that if he’s never seen it? So, while Nightmare is away from the TV somedays, the boys will sneak into the living room and turn on the TV.

Nightmare was currently in the library, reading as usual, so while he’s distracted, the boys are watching cartoons. Cross also got some snacks for them to eat while they watch. Nightmare doesn’t keep any junk food in the house, which probably isn’t a bad thing, since Cross has been told before that junk food is bad for you, so he got everyone some sliced meat, cheese, and crackers. He also made sure everyone kept their food on paper towels, so it would be easy to quickly clean up any crumbs. If Nightmare found any signs that they brought food in there, then he would know what they’ve been doing.

They’ve found a show that seems to entertain everyone, so there’s not arguments over what they should watch. The show is about these ninja turtles who fight aliens and other ninja – the turtles are also brothers, learning to work together as a team, so it relates to the skeleton brothers pretty well. How could a show like this brainwash them? It’s about protecting the world from evil, so if anything, it could really help them, since the boys have been messed up ever since….that day… Cross’ brother’s haven’t been able to tell right from wrong since then, and even the monochrome skeleton has been affected by it, often finding himself confused and scared.

It seems like it was a long time ago now, but that incident will forever be burned into Cross’ memory. It’s a big reason why he still isn’t sure about whether they can trust Nightmare or not. He still doesn’t know if he can believe that he cares. He looked to his brothers as he remembered the things Nightmare said about them being important to him. It’s been nearly constantly on his mind ever since it happened, but he’s not sure what to think about it.

“Hey, Dust?” Cross spoke up as he tried to think of a way to ask his brother about this.

“Hm?” Dust turned his head slightly towards him, but he kept his eyes on the TV screen.

“…what do you think of Nightmare?”

The question seemed to grab Dust’s full attention as he turned to completely look at him now. Anytime Cross ever mentions Nightmare, he would always seem frustrated or angry, but now he just seems confused. “…whatdaya mean?”

“I mean, …. Do you trust him?” Cross was now fiddling with a cracker as he spoke.

Dust’s expression was a bit surprised at first, but it quickly shifted to a lazy smirk. “haven’t we had this conversation before? Ya know, when you were worrying about if Nightmare was gonna do something to us, and I told ya that if he was then he would’ve done it already?”

Cross shot him a glare. “And right after that he freaked out at Killer over a dumb crown.”

“So? He just got angry and yelled at him like he always does – he didn’t hurt anyone. Killer doesn’t seem bothered by it all. I don’t think he CAN be hurt emotionally. People get angry sometimes, and Nightmare isn’t any different, and it’s not like we haven’t seen angry people before.”

Cross gave a little huff at him. “Whatever, so do you trust him or not?”

Dust’s smirk only widened at his brother’s reaction. “I think the real question is why are you asking this all of a sudden?”

Cross sighed and looked away from him to study the cracker he’s been toying with. Of course, Dust would want to know the whole story before answering. “I snuck out of our room the other night and tried to make Nightmare answer my questions. He kept ignoring me, and I got angry and ended up asking him why he even bothers to keep us here if we’re so much trouble to him.”

Dust’s smirk slowly dropped into a frown as he listened to the monochrome skeleton. He didn’t say anything, but Cross could see the question in his eyes. “He actually answered that question. He said that we’re important to him, and that he couldn’t just replace us with other kids.”

Killer perked up at this. “He said that?”

It seems that Killer and Horror had tuned into their conversation at some point – Cross didn’t even notice that they were watching him until now. Killer’s smile seemed to grow after hearing this news about Nightmare.

Cross just shook his head at him. “I know what you’re thinking, and I thought it at first too, but I don’t know if we can believe that or not. I don’t know if he actually cares about us or if he just said that to trick us. He could’ve also meant it in a different way, like we’re objects for him to use.” The boy looked troubled as he stared at his cracker. “I just don’t know. Could we really trust him?”

They all went silent for a moment, thinking about this before Killer spoke up. “Well…I think he’s ok.”

Cross gave him a skeptical look. “Just ‘ok’?”

Dust spoke up at this. “Come on, Cross. This is US we’re talking about. Do you really think that we’ll get anything better than ‘ok’?” He gave a smirk, but it clearly wasn’t a happy one.

Horror spoke up now. “He gives us food every day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. It always tastes really good, and a lot better than the food we were getting before. So… I like him.”

Of course, Horror would relate his reasonings to food, but he probably would like anyone who fed him. Dust decided to add a bit to Horror’s statement. “He even asks us what we want to eat sometimes, which makes sense, since I’ve never seen him eat before, but no one’s ever asked us what WE want before.”

Killer nodded at this and pulled his toy knife out of his pocket. “He even gave me a toy knife, though I would rather a real one, but no one’s ever given us things that make us happy before.” He put his knife back in his pocket as he continued. “There was also one time I fell off of the counter and cracked my knee. He took me to the bathroom and put a bandage on it.”

Cross thought as he listened to all of them. They all seem ok with accepting Nightmare into their lives. Despite everything they’ve said, he’s still having doubts.

Killer smiled as he spoke again. “It’s kind of like he’s our da-“

“He’s not our dad!” Cross quickly cut off Killer before he could even say that Nightmare could be their father. “He won’t ever be our dad.”

There was a long silence before Dust spoke. “Maybe for you.”

Cross looked at Dust with his browbone furrowed as he continued. “Have you ever thought that maybe the reason why you hate Nightmare so much is because you’re the only one of us that had a family before, and you still can’t accept that they’re gone?”

Cross’s eyes widened at Dust’s words – his eye lights shrinking into tiny dots. A mix of emotions pulled at his soul: guilt, sadness, anger, fear. With all these emotions swirling inside of him, he couldn’t think of anything to say, so he just looked at the floor with his fists clinched and shaking at his sides. He felt like he wanted to clock Dust in the face but fighting him isn’t going to change anything. It’s not going to bring his family back.

* * *

Nightmare’s POV

Nightmare glanced at the clock on the wall of the library. It was getting close to dinner time, so he closed the book he was reading and stood up from his reading chair. He’s gotten into the routine of starting dinner a little early so it would be ready for when it was time to eat. He could sense that the boys were in the living room, and it seemed that they’ve been there ever since he first started reading in the library. He supposed that they’d decided to make the living room their play area for today. They always seemed to pick a different spot, and it made him wonder how much longer he would be able to keep them in the house before they start wanting to go outside – they may even decide to sneak out if he doesn’t permit it.

As he exited the room, he decided that he would have to think of some way to let them outside another time. For now, the boys would just have to-

Nightmare suddenly stopped when he sensed a presence trying to get in the house… one that was all too familiar… He quickly teleported to the entrance when the person forced their way in through the door, causing a loud bang when the door swung against the wall. There, standing in the doorway was a yellow clad skeleton - the same clothes he remembers him wearing so long ago, and he was holding a familiar staff.

“…Nightmare” He still had those golden sorrow filled eyes from the last time they saw each other. “What have you done?”

The dark skeleton didn’t even grace the golden one with an answer as he summoned his tentacles, ready to attack. But then he heard the sound of little feet tapping against the floor as they came into the entryway.

“That wasn’t us this time.” Killer announced as they entered, but they all stopped when they saw the new skeleton. Shit… Nightmare quickly placed himself between Dream and the boys.

“How did you get in here, Dream? This au has a lock on it.” He hasn’t even started to train the boys yet. They won’t be able to help him in a fight against his brother – they would just get in the way. He’ll have to try distracting him with questions so that he can catch him off guard and get him out of the house and away from the boys.

Dream’s eyes widened with shock when he saw the small skeletons, then it quickly morphed into confusion as he looked back to Nightmare. As he stared at the evil skeleton, a very small flicker of hope flashed in his sockets. Even though it was only for an instance, Nightmare still saw it, and it caused a deep anger to boil inside of him.

“Don’t you dare look at me like that. We both know this doesn’t change anything. You can’t undo what’s been done.” Dreams eyes filled with sadness again, but then he quickly put on a stern face. He’s not fooling anyone with that – he’s clearly still letting his emotions get in the way. He must’ve just been freed from his stone prison, meaning he hasn’t changed at all. If he’s still the same as he was back then, then Nightmare could kill him now. He’s gotten stronger over the years that Dream has been trapped, while his brother has only remained the same. He could end it all now.

First things first though, he still needs to get him out of the house, so the boys will no longer be a concern. “You still didn’t answer my question, Dream.”

“I made a friend when I woke up. He helped me get here- “As Dream was talking, Nightmare quickly lunged forward, striking at the golden skeleton with a tentacle while he wasn’t expecting it. Just as the evil skeleton expected, his brother blocked the attack with his staff, leaving himself open for the second tentacle. It slammed into Dream’s middle, effectively knocking him out of the house and sending him flying outside.

Good, he’s out. Now he can fight for real. Unfortunately, he’s lost the element of surprise now, but he could still win, as long as this “friend” of Dream’s doesn’t get involved wherever he is. Nightmare quickly followed Dream outside, a trail of steam following him from the tentacle that touched the staff. Dream was quickly standing up from the last attack, readying his staff for the next. His weapon is made of positive feelings, so touching it will deal damage to Nightmare. For the golden skeleton, this will be a battle of endurance. As long as he can hold his own against the dark skeleton and keep blocking the attacks, then the staff will do all the work for him. But if Nightmare can overwhelm him with power and speed, then he won’t be able to block him.

Nightmare started launching attacks at his brother, mostly just testing him to see what he’s dealing with. He didn’t even sense when his brother woke up, so that could mean one of two things – one, Dream somehow managed to cloak himself to prevent Nightmare for sensing him, so that he could spend time gaining strength to defeat him, or two, he went straight to Nightmare immediately after waking up. Judging by how slow his brother’s movements are, it’s number two.

The dark skeleton formed an evil smirk on his face at his brother’s foolishness. He didn’t even try to recover before charging straight to him. Nightmare quickly shot his tentacles at his brother without fear of the staff, putting a great deal of power behind the attack. Dream blocked it, but the impact caused him to drop to his knees as he struggled to hold the tentacles back. The dark skeleton didn’t let up, keeping his brother down. The staff was doing damage to him, but it doesn’t matter now – Dream is far too weak to even hope to defeat him. He leaned in close to his brother as he held the pressure down on the staff, venom lacing his words as he spoke.

“What’s wrong, brother? Has that few thousand years trapped in stone not treated you well? Hehehehe, you’re still such a fool. You just had to come running to me without even giving yourself time to recover. Did you think you were being poetic? Well, your dramatic endeavor is going to be the death of you.”

With the staff occupied with a few of his tentacles, Nightmare used another one to quickly shoot past the staff and stab his brother through his chest, causing him to yell out in pain. A last resort bout of strength allowed Dream to push the tentacles off of his staff and quickly jump back in retreat. However, this will do him no good – he has already taken severe damage, so he will have a difficult time trying to escape, not that Nightmare would let him try.

“So long, brother” An onslaught of tentacles quickly dashed towards dream, ready to puncture him until he’s nothing but dust, but a black wall suddenly formed between them and Dream. Nightmare quickly made his tentacles retreat from this new attack. What now?

The wall liquified and fell with a splash on the ground, revealing a skeleton holding a large paintbrush clad in brown and white with green straps hanging at his sides and a long brown scarf around his neck. “Woah looks like I got here just in time. Ya need some help, buddy?”

Dream looked up at the artist skeleton, “Ink.”

Great, now the soulless guardian is in his way. What’s worse is that he can’t kill him – there’s no soul to break. He’ll have to figure out a way to distract him so that he can get around to- The pitter patter of tiny feet distracted him from his thoughts again, and when he turned to look, the small skeletons were now at his sides.

“Boys, get back inside now!” Nightmare would normally toss them back inside himself, but he needs his tentacles to be free in case the guardian decides to attack.

“No, it’s two against one now. You need our help.” Dust spoke up as they all refused to retreat.

“You fools. You’re all going to die.” Nightmare growled at the small skeletons.

“Woah! There are kids here?! When did you guys get here? I never saw anyone except Nightmare enter this au.” Ink seemed both shocked and excited at the same time.

Dream’s sockets widened when he saw the boys step in to help Nightmare. He took one more look at his brother, before calling to Ink. “Ink, we need to get out of here. Now.”

“Aww, but it’s just getting started…. Well actually, you might be finished, but I just got here.”

“Ink, please.”

The brown clad skeleton let out a long sigh. “Alright alright, fight you guys later!”

With that, Ink jumped into the ink puddle from the wall earlier, pulling Dream with him as the exited the au. As the two skeleton’s left, Nightmare let out a sigh and let his still steaming tentacles droop at his sides. He was so close. He could’ve ended it all just now…

“Boys… when I tell you to do something, do it. Next time disobeying me might cost you your lives.”

The older skeleton turned and walked back to the house, not bothering to pick up the boys with his tentacles, since they were still healing from the damage. The boys followed him back inside, and he closed the door behind them, though it would need to be fixed from Dream forcing his way in earlier. He didn’t bother saying anything as he walked to the living room and flopped onto the couch – the boys following all the while and sitting with him.

It was quiet for a while as they sat and contemplated everything that happened, but when a few minutes went by, the boys couldn’t take being quiet anymore.

“So, who were those guys?” Cross asked first.

Nightmare closed his eye as he thought about how to answer. He wasn’t expecting Dream to awaken for at least 10 more years. The boys were supposed to be old enough to assist him with things like this by then, but of course, his brother had to wake up early. Now he lost the chance he had to end this quickly, and he would be a fool to think that it won’t get much harder from here. He’ll have to start training the boys much earlier than he anticipated.

“I suppose I can’t keep it a secret from you any longer. I had hoped to tell you all of this when you were much older, but it seems I will have to advance my plans.” He opened his eye again to look at the boys. “That was my brother, Dream, and the one who came in to help him was Ink, the guardian of the aus.”

“You’re brother? And the guardian of the aus?” Cross tilted his head in confusion, and his brothers had the same confused look on their faces.

Nightmare sighed. “It’s a lot to explain, and I’m not sure if you’re even old enough to understand everything.”

The sound of growling sounded in the room and Horror hugged his stomach in an attempt to silence it. Right, they should’ve had dinner by now. “Why don’t you boys eat first, then I’ll explain everything.”

They all nodded in agreement, Horror more vigorously.

“How about we just make sandwiches today?” Nightmare said with a sigh. Cooking seemed like a lot of work now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So a lot of stuff happened in this part, and I was planning on adding more, but it was already getting long. XD


	9. Tale of Two Brothers

It was a beautiful day outside. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and flowers were blooming. On days like these, the purple clad skeleton loved sitting under the tree of life to read a good book. The light that managed to stream through the leaves of the tree shimmered on his golden crown, occasionally forming a bright spot on the pages of his book, causing him to scoot out of the light, so it doesn’t hinder his reading. He could just take off his crown, but he didn’t want to. It was a sign of everything he was, showing everyone that he a guardian of this tree – it was his badge of honor. Taking it off would mean that he isn’t proud of who he is.

Normally, his brother would always be with him. On days like this, the golden clad skeleton would usually be playing in the grass or putting flowers in his brother’s crown while he read his book, but lately Dream has been spending a lot of time with the humans who built a town recently not far off from the tree. Nightmare has always been wary of the humans ever since they moved in so close to them, and he especially didn’t like that his brother would leave the tree to spend all day with them. His brother is so kind and full of joy that he can’t see anything bad in anyone, but since Nightmare is the guardian of negativity, he could feel all of their hate and malicious intent. He’s tried many times to convince Dream to stop visiting them so much, that they aren’t as good as they seem, but he never listens.

Nightmare knows that there’s a reason why they built their town so close to the tree, and he knows that it isn’t for anything good. His encounters with the humans was plenty proof of their ill will. Since he would never go to their town, a group attempted to approach him instead, carrying weapons behind their backs. They tried to pretend to be nice and invite him to join his brother in the town, but he could see right through them and refused. Angered that he wouldn’t cooperate, they lashed out at him, drawing their weapons and attempting to kill him. They wanted the apples from the tree, and they were going to do whatever they had to in order to get them.

It was on that day that Nightmare discovered his ability to provoke negative emotions. He had been beaten nearly to dust, laying limp on the ground defeated. They were about to take the apples when a burst of rage filled him. He wanted them to feel fear, and so they did. They were so afraid that they dropped their weapons and ran. Dream returned to him a few hours after that and desperately asked him what happened after seeing his body littered with cracks and blood. He was too tired and broken at that time to answer his brother. When he was healed, he tried to explain to his brother once again that he shouldn’t visit the humans anymore, and that they only wanted the apples from the tree, but Dream didn’t believe him again, even after seeing all the damage that they inflicted onto Nightmare, he still didn’t trust his judgement.

Nightmare gripped the book in his hands a bit tighter as he worried about Dream. What if they hurt him? No, they wouldn’t. Dream is able to manipulate their emotions as well, making them happy when they’re around him, even though he doesn’t realize that he’s doing this. There’s often times when the humans drag Dream away from Nightmare, that he can feel their malicious intent, but it’s like when they get close to Dream, all that toxicity disappears, and they forget that they were plotting to do something to him. As long as Dream is able to keep his positive aura around him, then the humans won’t hurt him. So far, they just seem to assign a group to lead dream away while a second group faces Nightmare to fight him once again. This vicious cycle has been going on for months now. Dream would leave, the towns people would attack Nightmare, then Dream would come back, and Nightmare would hide his wounds to avoid another argument with his brother.

A flash of light from the corner of his eye caught Nightmare’s attention. His brother was making his way up the hill with a basket on one arm, his crown glistening in the sunlight as he moved. It seems he was returning early today – the humans hadn’t even had the chance to attack yet. Now they certainly wouldn’t with Dream here.

“Hey, Nighty! I thought I would come and sit with you for a bit,” he said as he plopped down next to his brother. He didn’t waist anytime as he quickly pulled the contents out of the basket. “Look! Granny made us pie. Isn’t that really sweet?”

Ah, that’s why he’s back so early. He just wants to share a pie with him, so he’ll probably head back to the humans as soon as they’ve finished it. Nightmare glanced at the pie before narrowing his eyes at his brother. “She’s not our granny. You shouldn’t call her that.”

Dream’s smile dropped at this. “But she said that she wanted us to call her granny.”

Of course, she did, because her real grandson left to fight in some war or something and never came back. She still hasn’t gotten over it, so she’s trying to make the skeleton brothers into her grandsons instead. He knows about this, because she was one of the first people to come visit them when the town was built, and she would constantly talk about how her grandson was going to come back home as a war hero or something, but then some soldiers visited her to give her some news and she stopped visiting them. Dream never stopped visiting her, however, and now she keeps insisting that he call her granny.

“That doesn’t make her our granny. She’s just still upset that her real grandson is gone. We can’t replace him.”

“I’m not trying to replace him.” Dream narrowed his yellow eyes at Nightmare, looking a bit irritated. How could he even suggest such a thing? “I wish you wouldn’t act so cruel towards the humans all the time. You know just as well as I do that granny loved her grandson, and she could never replace him. I don’t understand why you hate them so much when they’ve been nothing but kind to us.”

‘Maybe to you,’ Nightmare wanted to say, but he knew that it would be a bad idea. Dream wasn’t going to take his side on this, so he didn’t want to start another argument with him. He just looked back to his book with a frustrated scowl.

Dream sighed and looked at the pie in his lap sadly when he realized that his brother wasn’t going to answer him. He couldn’t understand why Nightmare refused to see that the humans were good. Every time he visits them, they’re always so kind to him, and they even give him gifts sometimes. “…will you at least share this pie with me? I can’t eat it all by myself.” If his brother refused, then he probably wouldn’t even try to eat the dessert. He would be too upset to want anything sweet.

Nightmare glanced at the pie for a moment. He never felt any malicious intent with granny, but he hasn’t seen her for a long time, so who knows if the other towns folk have convinced her to turn against the brothers as well. “…ok, can I have the first slice?”

Dream seemed to brighten up when his brother accepted something from the humans. He usually would refuse anything from them except for books. “Of course!” He quickly took a knife from the basket and some plates with forks. He cut out a large piece of pie and plopped it onto one of the plates before giving it to Nightmare. It was a much bigger piece that the purple clad skeleton would’ve wanted, but he didn’t complain.

Nightmare took the pie from his brother, quickly taking a bite of it before he could get a slice for himself. It tasted fine, so he supposed that it wasn’t poisoned. If it is poisoned, then it must not be fast acting, and in that case, then at least he and his brother will die together. He ate his pie quietly as Dream started talking about the town. He talked about the things he did today and what he planned to do next when he went back. By now, he’s probably memorized every humans name, so he started talking about them individually, what they would do, and the kind things they would say. Sometimes he would even talk about how their families were doing and how the kids were growing. Its intrigued Dream how humans would grow instead of staying the same size for all of their lives. Since he and his brother are guardians, they don’t grow or change – they’ve stayed the same for hundreds of years.

By the time Dream finished talking, they had eat the entire pie – Dream eating most of it. With the pie now gone, the brightly colored skeleton stood up, collecting the pie tray and plates with silverware, and putting them back into the basket. “Well, I’m gonna head back now… I would really like it if you would come with me.” He fidgeted with the basket in his hands, hoping that his brother would tag along this time.

Nightmare only sighed. “And I wish you would stop going there. The humans aren’t as good as you think they are.”

Dream looked sad for a moment, but it quickly changed to anger. “Why can’t you see that the humans aren’t bad?”

The purple skeleton returned the angry expression his brother was giving him. “Can you seriously not feel ANYTHING wrong with them? Not even the slightest big of bad intentions?”

“No, because they aren’t bad! I never felt anything wrong with them from the very beginning, and they’ve already proven many times that they are good. If you would just stop being so stubborn, then maybe you would see that there’s nothing wrong with them!” He took a breath to stop himself from yelling again, but he continued to glare at his brother. “Sometimes… I wonder if you put browses and cracks all over yourself on purpose everyday just to blame it on the humans and make them look bad.”

Nightmare’s eyes widened, and his jaw went slack at his brother’s assumption. He was so shocked that his brother would even suggest that he was doing all of this on purpose that he couldn’t speak. He also mentioned that he saw them every day. Has he not been hiding it well enough? He was sure that he always kept his injuries covered so that Dream would never see them.

Dreams eyes widened as well as he took in Nightmare’s reaction, as if it confirmed his suspicions. His eyes filled with tears as he covered his mouth with his hands, looking horrified. He didn’t mean to say what he did, but he was so angry that it just slipped out. He didn’t think it was true, but with the way his brother reacted to it just now, not even denying it, it must be true. A small sob escaped him as he turned to run back to the town. Nightmare quickly stood up to try to stop his brother. “Dream, wait!” But he was already gone. 

Nightmare glared at the ground, gritting his teeth in frustration. He wanted to go after Dream, but what would he say? He already thinks that he’s hurting himself on purpose to blame it on the humans, so if he tells him that the humans actually are the ones who hurt him, then he won’t believe him. It will just confirm to Dream that he is trying to frame the humans. What can he even do?

He decided to try going back to reading to take his mind off of everything, but it was proving to be nearly impossible. He’s been staring at the same page for a few hours now, unable to concentrate as he thought about Dream. How is he ever going to fix this? He was so distracted, that he didn’t even see the group of humans approaching him as they always did every day to try to take the apples. When he finally noticed them, it was too late. One human was already in front of him and hit him over the head with a wooden club.

The shock from the hit left him stunned for several minutes. When he finally came back to his senses, he looked towards the humans with blurry vision, trying to see through the fog in is eyes to figure out what they were doing. Then he realized that they were climbing up the tree and reaching for the apples. His sockets widened as his vision slowly cleared, and he sat up from his spot on the ground in a panic. “no… NO STOP!” But it was too late.

As soon as the humans touched one of the golden apples, they all started changing color. The humans flinched away from the fruits in surprise as they darkened and changed to black apples just like the other half of the tree. One every golden apple was corrupted, the humans suddenly turned to Nightmare with enraged expressions.

“What have you done to the apples!”

“Look at what you did! Now there won’t be anymore kindness in the world!”

“This was your plan all along wasn’t it? You wanted to overthrow your brother and rule the world!”

All of their accusations were complete nonsense – just random anger induced shouting. Despite their words being completely illogical, it didn’t make them hurt any less. Nightmare didn’t care about what the humans thought of him, but he did care about what Dream would think when he saw this and heard all of these false statements from the humans. He already trusts the humans more than him, so there’s no way he would believe his side of the story. He’ll think he’s a monster; he’ll hate him; he’ll hurt him.

The purple clad skeleton started trembling with the thoughts of what his brother would do when he returned. Then he looked up at the apples and froze, suddenly becoming completely numb – all the shouting from the humans was just distant background noise. If Dream was going to just think of him as a monster no matter what, then why not accept it? He stood up and pushed past the humans to get to the apples, then he started eating them furiously. The humans could only watch in disbelief, stunned to silence.

When he had already eaten several apples, the humans decided to take action and try to stop him. Before they could even get close to him, a black substance started coating the small skeleton, forming a tentacle behind him that collided with the humans, sending them flying back. Anyone who approached him was either thrown or skewered. All of the commotion attracted the attention of the rest of the town, including his brother. By the time the golden skeleton got to the tree, it was to late – all of the apples were gone, and Nightmare was now completely covered in the black substance.

“Nightmare!” Dream called out to his brother. “What happened to you! What happened to the tree!”

Nightmare only glared at his brother. “So now you care? I’ve spent the last several months protecting this tree from the humans while you would run off and play with them. I’ve been beaten many times, but you never cared. You even had the audacity to blame it all on me to say that I was just doing it to myself. But now that I’ve become what you think of me and something has happened to the tree, now you care?” An evil grin spread across Nightmare’s face. “You know what? I’m done.”

One of Nightmare’s tentacles suddenly slashed across the base of the tree, and Dream could only watch in horror as it tumbled to the ground, never to grow apples again. “I’ll keep the balance of the universe myself, and I don’t need you or this tree to do it.” His tentacles flailed behind him, ready for whatever Dream decided to do.

Tears were now streaming down Dreams face. “Please don’t do this Nightmare! We can talk about this!”

The dark skeleton narrowed his eyes at the bright one. “I’ve tried to talk to you for month, but you never listened. I’m done talking.” Suddenly, Nightmares tentacles shot towards Dream before he had any time to react. The wrapped around him and knocked him to the ground, holding him there as Nightmare slowly walked towards him. “Poor weak little Dream. How could you ever hope to stop me? I’ve already eaten all of the apples from the tree. I hold the power of the universe in my hands. You have no chance.” The evil skeleton stood over his brother with a dark grin.

“A-actually… you don’t.” With that, Dream pulled a golden apple out of his pocket.

“What? When did you- NO!” Nightmare quickly tried to take the apple from Dream, but he was already biting into it. There was a bright flash, then Dream summoned a staff, using it to knock the tentacles off of him. They burned as the staff touched them, causing Nightmare to jump back, avoiding any further damage. How!? How did just one apple give Dream so much power!? He could sense flowing off of him – it’s like they’re an even match now. As Nightmare studied his brother, he could see that he didn’t just eat the apple, it became his soul. This means… that if he wants to control the balance of the universe, he will have to kill his brother and take the apple to make the collection complete.

Nightmare gritted his teeth as his tentacles flailed behind him in rage. Of course, he would force him to have to kill him in order to take the last apple. But… he can’t do it now. Dream is too strong right now, so he would risk dying as well if he tried. So, with a sigh, he smirked at his brother, “Well then, it looks like I’ll just have to deal with you another day.” His tentacles shot towards dream again, who tried to fend them off, but there were too many. They completely wrapped Dream in a cocoon of darkness. “For now, you just sit right here and wait.” Dream was helpless as he slowly started turning to stone, the tentacles keeping him from resisting. Once the transformation was complete, Nightmare released the now stone version of his brother.

With his brother out of the way, Nightmare began his journey throughout the universe, causing negativity everywhere he went in order to become strong enough to kill Dream when the time came.

* * *

Present day

The boys all sat around Nightmare quietly as he told the story. “So, in order for me to restore balance to the universe, I will have to kill my brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare may or may not have changed the story a bit XD


	10. (Silly conversations)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry for going so long without updating this. I haven't been able to figure out how I want to write the next part. I know what I want to happen in the next chapter and the few chapters after that, but I don't really know how to put events together. I guess it's kind of like writer's block. I've been keeping a list of key things that I want to happen, so I won't forget. In the mean time, I wrote some silly scripted conversations that I thought might be amusing to read. This is also kind of an answer to how Nightmare would react to the boys asking him adult related questions, since it seems like some people have been wanting to know that. Spoiler: He's not going to tell them anything adult related, obviously. He'll just do whatever he can to avoid the subjects or just outright tell them no.

Nightmare: *sips some tea as he reads a newspaper*

  
Cross: *walks up next to Nightmare* "What's f//k?

  
Nightmare: *chokes on his tea.* "Excuse me??" 

  
Cross: "I guess it's something bad then." 

  
Nightmare: "wh- where did you even hear that?"

  
Cross: "you said it while you were fighting Ink."

  
Nightmare: *he pauses for a moment as he remembers.* "oh... well, I was just saying that as more of an insult." 

  
Cross: "so... what is it?" 

  
Nightmare: "something that you're way too young to know about. You shouldn't even know the word." 

  
Cross: *he glares at Nightmare* "I think we both know that I'm a lot smarter than the average 5-year-old."

  
Nightmare: "Be that as it may, you're still 5, so I'm not having this conversation with you." 

  
Cross: "so it's just a bad word then like the others you get upset with me saying?" 

  
Nightmare: "bad words have meanings behind them that make them bad, you know." 

  
Cross: "...so then what does f//k mean?" 

  
Nightmare: "would you please stop saying that word?"

  
Cross: "why? you say it." 

  
Nightmare: "it's different when I say it. I'm an adult. You're just a kid." 

  
Cross: *he crossed his arms over his chest in defiance* "I'm not just a kid. I can say what I want."

  
Nightmare: "Don't you dare go saying that to your brothers!" 

  
Cross: "then tell me what it means, so I'll know why I shouldn't say it." 

  
Nightmare: *he sighed and put his head in his hand as he thought.* "look, I'll tell you what it means when you're older, you're just way too young to know right now. Even if I told you, you probably still wouldn't understand it." 

  
Cross: "why can't I understand it now? I'm smart."

Nightmare: "I know you are, but when you get older you...you'll just understand when you're older, so just wait until you get to that age." 

  
Cross: *he sighed and gave Nightmare little pleading eyes.* "Can't you at least give me a hint?" 

  
Nightmare: "I'll tell you that it can be used for insults sometimes, but I can't tell you HOW it insults people." 

  
Cross: "well then... how old do I need to be before you tell me?"

  
Nightmare: "probably when you're a teenager, so possible at 13 if certain circumstances are met." 

  
Cross: "what circumstances?"

  
Nightmare: "um... you'll know when it happens." 

  
Cross: *he gave nightmare a stern look.* "Then promise me you'll tell me when I turn 13."

  
Nightmare: "Cross, I don't even know if the circumstances will be met when you turn 13. It could happen later, maybe even years later." 

  
Cross: *he climbed onto Nightmare's lap to look him in his eyes.* "Promise."

  
Nightmare: "...how about I promise to tell you when it happens?"

  
Cross: "no, you might just lie and say that nothing happened, since I don't know what the circumstances are, so you won't have to tell me at all. So tell me when I turn 13."

Nightmare: "ugh, Cross, this is conversation that I'll probably have to have with you and your brothers all at the same time, so I don't what to have to tell you all this too early. I don't really want to talk about it with you at all, let alone too early." 

  
Cross: *he glared at him.* "p r o m i s e"

  
Nightmare: "..." *sigh* "fine, but you have to make a promise with me first. You have to promise that whatever I tell you on that day, you won't try it with anyone until you're 18." 

  
Cross: "why do I have to wait that long?"

  
Nightmare: "I'll explain why when I tell you what it is, just promise me." 

  
Cross: "...fine, I promise I won't try it until I'm 18." 

  
Nightmare: "good, then I promise to tell you what it is when you're 13. Now would you get off of me?" 

  
Cross: *he climbed off of Nightmare and trotted off to go play with his brothers. As he left he called to Nightmare over his shoulder.* "You better keep your promise." 

  
Nightmare: "And you better keep yours"

Now Killer's turn to make Nightmare uncomfortable XD

Nightmare: *He was sitting on the couch in the living room watching the news on the TV. Killer was sitting in his lap. He always insisted on sitting with the darker skeleton when he wasn't off playing with his brothers.*

  
Killer: *He looked pretty bored, since the news isn't very entertaning to a kid. Suddenly he looked up to Nightmare when a question popped into his head.* "Nightmare? How old are you?" 

  
Nightmare: *he blinked as he didn't expect to be asked that question. He had to think for a moment before answering.* "well, I don't know the exact number, since people didn't really keep up with their ages back then, but I would say that I'm at least a few thousand years old." 

  
Killer: *his jaw dropped after hearing such a big number.* "Woah, so you're like an ultra grandpa!" 

  
Nightmare: *he glared at that.* "I am not a grandpa. I don't age the same way that you do, and even if I did, I still wouldn't be a grandpa. I never had any children." 

  
Killer: "Never??" 

  
Nightmare: "that's what I said."

  
Killer: "but you've been alive for a long time. Did you ever try?" 

  
Nightmare: "....maybe a few times, but nothing ever happened. I probably can't have children." 

  
Killer: "huh? but you have us?"

  
Nightmare: "that's... not what I meant. I mean I probably can't actually MAKE children."

  
Killer: "oh... why not?"

  
Nightmare: ".... well... I'm not exactly the same species as monsters or humans. I might look like a skeleton, but I'm more like... a higher being. It's like how you never see chicken-ducks or lion-horses running around. It just isn't possible."

Killer: "oh... well are there others like you?" 

  
Nightmare: "I... don't know actually. I've never come across anyone else like me or my brother." 

  
Killer: "hm... WAIT! You said that you've tried to make a kid before. Does that mean that you've had a girlfriend before?" 

  
Nightmare: "no..." 

  
Killer: *visible confusion* 

  
Nightmare: "just because babies come from parents doesn't mean that those parents have to be in a relationship in order to have a kid."

  
Killer: "so you didn't love them?" 

  
Nightmare: "not emotionally, no" 

  
Killer: "then why did you try to have a kid with them?" 

  
Nightmare: "uh... well... I guess it just started out as curiosity, but then I... well, it doesn't matter now. It's never worked anyway." 

  
Killer: "oh, ok.... how do you make a baby?"

  
Nightmare: "NOPE! No, I've already been through this with Cross. I'm not going through it again with you. Just forget about it and accept that they're magically created by parents."

(If you're wondering what Cross is talking about when he says that Nightmare fought Ink, it's based after this drawing below) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering what Nightmare means by certain "circumstances," he's referring to heats. I've seen a lot of people theorize or write in their stories that monsters would have heats. I think that monsters would start having heat cycles at the same time that humans would go through hormones, which is around 13. But like Nightmare said, sometimes people don't go though hormones until much later, which is why Nightmare is still worried about telling Cross anything even if he's 13.


	11. The Destroyer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter time! Hope you guys are ready for a longer read full of memes and shenanigans.

Now that the boys have seen Dream and heard the story about Nightmare and his brother, it’s time for them to start learning what they will need to do to help the dark skeleton. Said dark skeleton was currently in the basement, setting up an attack dummy. The boys will need to learn how to fight, so they can defend themselves; however, he doesn’t want them to kill everyone. He wants them to learn how to cause negative emotions, but if everyone is dead, then there won’t be any more emotions at all, good or bad. Some of the kids already have the instinct to attack and fight, but they don’t seem to have any restraint. He will have to teach them to control their murderous impulses.

Nightmare had his back to the stairs leading down to the basement as he worked. He didn’t need to turn around to know that there were little eye lights watching him from the stairs. They must be curious about what he’s doing, since they’ve never seen him go down to the basement before. This was actually a good thing, since he needed to show them what he was doing anyway. He straitened his posture as he stepped away from the dummy, having finished his task. “Boys come in here. I need to speak with you.”

The boys were a little shocked when Nightmare didn’t even turn around when he started speaking to them, but they entered the room regardless. They’ve seen Nightmare do a few other unusual thinks before while they’ve been living with him, so there’s no doubt that he can do many other things that he hasn’t told them about yet. The dark skeleton waited for the little ones to line up and pay attention before he spoke again. “So, you all know about my brother now, and now that he’s come back, I need to work faster to try to stop him before attacks again. If you boys want to continue living here, then you’ll have to help me against Dream.”

Cross folded his arms and glared at the larger skeleton. “Why do we have to help you? You threatening to dump us on the streets if we don’t?”

Nightmare raised a brow bone at the child, “No, but who will put food on the table or protect you from Dream and his allies if they invade the house if I’m dead?”

Cross seemed to pale at that, looking away in defeat. Nightmare nodded as it seemed that his point had gotten across to the young skeleton. “Anyway, in order for you to help me, you will have to learn to fight and cause negative emotions. If there is enough negativity, then I should be able to overpower Dream. And while I do want you all to learn how to fight, I don’t expect any of you to actually fight anyone yet. You’re all still very young, so we’ll just focus on causing negativity for now.”

“But if we’re going to be upsetting people, won’t we need to learn to fight now? I don’t think they’re just going to stand there and take it,” Dust pointed out.

“Yes, I’m aware of that, and I will be teaching you how to fight as well, since learning at an early age will help you improve much faster; however, I don’t want you to fight anyone. If the people become hostile, I want you to run. The chances of any of you winning in a fight right now are very slim, even if I do train you to fight. You’re all too young and wouldn’t know what decisions to make in split second, which is what you need to be able to do in a fight, so that’s why I’m making the decision for you and telling you to just run,” Nightmare answered firmly. It’s not just that they are too young, they’re also small and weak. They wouldn’t have the stamina to keep up in a real fight against an adult. They would drop like flies within the first few minutes.

Cross narrowed his sockets at Nightmare, “well, what if Dream or one of his allies show up? I doubt they will just give up if we just run, so we’ll have to fight them.”

“If you see even a hint of Dream or his allies, you come back to me IMMEDIATELY,” Nightmare glared as he spoke this, making sure they know that he is serious. “This isn’t a fight you can win, and it certainly isn’t a game. If you fight them, you will die.”

“Could we at least fight them a little bit?” Killer spoke up.

“NO! I just told you that you would die! Do NOT fight them!” Nightmare yelled angrily as Killer just chuckled at his reaction, trying to hide his amusement before the larger skeleton became even angrier. Nightmare just sighed as he tried to ignore how Killer clearly wasn’t taking this seriously. Hopefully, the others will be able to stop him if he ever tries to fight anyone.

“ok, we’re getting off track. I told you all to come in here because I want you to show me what you can do.” Nightmare stepped to the side to allow them to have better access to the dummy. “I want you to pretend that the dummy is a real person and cause them to have negative feelings. Remember, don’t fight them. Who will go first?”

Killer immediately raised his hand and started bouncing on his toes with big grin. “Me! Me! I want to go first!”

Nightmare nodded to him and motioned towards the dummy, “go ahead then.”

Killer quickly took his toy knife out of his pocket, dashing towards the dummy. Once he was close, he jumped and slashed at its neck. With a glee filled grin, he turned back to the others – his hands in his pockets now, looking proud of himself.

Nightmare just blinked and stared at him for a moment. “…Killer, why did you kill them?”

“Well, you said that we couldn’t fight them, so I just went for the kill.” He looked as if he did nothing wrong, like he didn’t just murder someone in cold blood.

“And how are they going to have negative feelings if they’re dead?”

Killer paused for a moment to think about this, then he shrugged, “well, I’m sure someone would be upset that they’re dead.”

Nightmare sighed and shook his head, “yes, but if your only strategy is to kill everyone, then there won’t be anyone left alive.” When Killer didn’t show any signs of understanding his point, he motioned for him to go back with the others, “just go stand with your brothers. Maybe you can learn from one of them. Alright, who’s next?”

Dust shrugged and casually stepped forward as Killer rejoined them. “I can give it a shot, I guess.” He walked over to Nightmare, looking up at him with a lazy grin. “Do you have a smart phone?”

Nightmare raised a brow at him, “not with me, no.”

Dust just shrugged again, “That’s ok, I can put it on a piece of paper instead.” With that, Dust trotted off to go find a piece of paper and something to write with. Needless to say, Nightmare was a bit confused by this, but also intrigued. From what it seemed like, Dust might actually be putting a bit of thought into this and planning out a strategy. He was curious to see what he would come up with.

When Dust returned, he had the paper in hand and was hiding it behind his back so no one else would see it. “Ok, I’m ready.”

“Go ahead, show us what you came up with.” Nightmare couldn’t help the little smile that appeared on his face. There were many possibilities for what Dust was about to do, and the ones the darker skeleton was thinking of involved a much longer process, but it could prove to be very effective if executed correctly.

Dust nonchalantly walked up to the dummy, then suddenly revealed what was on the piece of paper, holding it out to the dummy. …There were no words - it was just a drawing? The drawing was made only out of straight lines connecting to each other at weird angles, making it hard to tell what it was supposed to be. Dust’s lazy grin grew wider as he spoke, “get stick bugged.” He then waved his hand to summon needle-like bones all around the dummy, making them stab into it and effectively turning it into a pincushion. 

Nightmare stood there speechless for a moment before he finally said something, “what… Dust, first of all, how would a drawing of a stick bug upset anyone? Second, you did the same thing as Killer and killed them.”

Dust just grinned at Nightmare, “I dunno, but people seem to really get upset by this stick bug thing online – it’s pretty hilarious. Also, they would’ve felt negative emotions before they died, so it’s ok.”

“No, it- …wait, how did you get online? The computer is locked with a password.”

“I figured out the password,” Dust answered with a lazy grin.

Nightmare sighed with frustration, “ok, we’ll have to have a talk about that later.” He glanced over to Horror and Cross. Horror looked hungry and Cross looked grumpy as always. “I have a feeling that Horror will just try to eat the dummy, and I think I’ve seen enough from Killer and Dust. I’ll just have to teach you boys how to cause negative feelings myself. For now, let’s just move on. Follow me.”

The larger skeleton motioned for the boys to follow him as he waked up the stairs to exit the basement. Cross and Horror didn’t seem too bothered that they didn’t get to have a turn at the dummy, since Cross thought it was boring, and Horror just wanted food. The small skeletons followed the larger one with out much of a fuss other than one occasionally messing with the other as they walked. They were led down several hallways of the mansion until they reached a room that the kids have yet to explore.

Nightmare opened the door to the room, revealing an empty room other than a door with a frame inside that wasn’t attached to a wall. He led the boys inside and stood next to the door, waiting for them to pay attention to him before he spoke. “This door will be used for whenever I’m not around and you have missions in other universes. It’s a portal that will take you to any au you want, and the portal will stay open as long as the door is open. Because of this, it should only be used for emergencies – we don’t want anyone walking though the portal uninvited.”

The dark skeleton reached to open the door to demonstrate how easy it is to use. “All you need to do, is think of the au you want to go to, then open the door, and it will take you there.” When he opened the door, it opened to an area in Snowdin in one of the classic timelines. The boys stared at the door with amazement. Dust glanced over to Cross, making Cross glance back at him. A silent agreement was made.

This silent agreement didn’t go unnoticed by Nightmare. He’s had to live with them for long enough to know what they’re plotting something. Now is a good time to crush any plan that they might be forming. He closed the door and took a key out of his pocket. “Since we won’t be needing to use this door just yet, it will be locked until I start sending you on missions. The key will be with me the whole time, so don’t even think about trying to use the door without my permission.” He locked the door, then put the key back in his pocket.

Cross looked a bit frustrated, but Dust kept his cool – trademark grin on his face. Dust has always been better at keeping a poker face than Cross. Nightmare glanced over to Horror when he started fidgeting – this usually means that he will need to eat soon. He took his pocket watch out to check the time. “Ah, it’s almost time for dinner. We’ll pick up where we left off tomorrow then.” With that, Nightmare made his way to the kitchen, leaving the boys to do what they wanted while he made dinner. Horror immediately followed after him, wanting to nibble on any ingredients that the larger skeleton intended to use while he cooked.

Killer stayed behind with Dust and Cross – he could tell that they were scheming something, and he wanted in on the details. “So, what’s the plan.” He knew that it involved using the door, since that’s when he noticed them making signals to each other, but they needed to figure out how to get it open.

Dust shrugged, “well, we either figure out how to pick a lock, or we find a way to get the key from Nightmare.” He looked over to Cross who was thinking to himself quietly.

Cross looked up when he noticed the other two staring at him. “Well, since Dust gave away that he figured out how to use the computer, I doubt that Nightmare would give us a chance to use it. So, we won’t be able to learn how to pick a lock from that, and I highly doubt that he would have a book on that. So, we’ll have to try to get the key, but he’s somehow able to know where we are all the time.”

“Not all the time. You were able to get into Nightmare’s room before when he was avoiding you, right?” Dust spoke up.

“Yes, that’s what I was thinking about. Why didn’t he know that I was removing the vent cover in his room? That was while he was teaching you and the others how to read, right? Did he seem a little off at any time, like he was suspicious of something?” Cross asked Dust.

“Nah, he was too busy getting pissed at me for making doodles instead of writing words.” Dust chuckled to himself as he remembered Nightmare’s reaction to him making a doodle of the darker skeleton. Needless to say, his representation of the larger skeleton wasn’t very pleasing.

Cross’ eyes widened at that, “So, he has to be paying attention to know where we are all the time.”

Dust nodded to him, “mhm, and when is he not paying attention to us for a long time?”

“When he’s sleeping, but we can’t just assume that we’ll be able to take the key while he’s asleep. He might just leave it in his pocket while he’s asleep, and he might be a light sleeper.” Cross pointed out.

“Right, so we’ll have to take the key during the day, and then use the door at night. We also need to think about that he might check for the key before he goes to sleep.”

“True, so we’ll have to find another key to put in it’s place.”

Killer was looking back and forth between them quietly as they spoke, but when the matter of needing a fake key came up, he finally spoke, “Nightmare keeps a house key next to the front door for him to grab when he leaves. So maybe we could use that one?” 

Dust grinned at that, “That’s true, the house key looks pretty similar to the one for the portal. In that case, we should probably try to take the portal key today, since it’s already late and unlikely for Nightmare to go anywhere. He likely won’t check for the house key today.”

Cross nodded, “Then it’s settled, we’ll take the key today and use the door tonight. We can’t afford to waste time; Nightmare probably won’t be fooled for long.”

“Right, but then who will take the key? Nightmare is already suspicious of us, since he caught us shooting signals to each other.” Dust mentioned.

Cross grinned, “Someone Nightmare would least expect to be fooled by.”

* * *

When it was time for bed, Nightmare walked the boys to their room and made sure they all got into bed. If he didn’t watch them and make sure they actually got in bed, they might stay up all night playing and waking him up. Dust walked over to his and Horror’s bunk bed and held his arms up to the top bunk, making a pitiful lazy whine. “Dust, you’re perfectly capable of getting up there yourself,” Nightmare said with a bit of irritation at the lazy child.

“But it’s so high up, and I’m tirrrred,” Dust said with a whine, but he had a mischievous grin on his face.

Nightmare scoffed and rolled his eye at the little skeleton, but he didn’t feel like arguing with him in the middle of the night, so he used one of his tentacles to pick up the child and place him in his bed. Dust snuggled in under his blankets with a triumphant grin on his face. The other boys had no problem getting into their beds, tucking themselves in and getting comfortable for the night. The darker skeleton watched them for a moment, making sure they stayed in bed before he went to the door to leave.

“Goodnight, Nightmare,” Killer called out as Nightmare was closing the door.

Nightmare paused for a moment before answering, “goodnight… and stay out of trouble.” With that, Nightmare closed the door, leaving them in the dark room.

It was quiet in the room for several minutes with none of the boys making a sound. Cross kept his eyes on the door, listening for any movement from Nightmare to signal that he’s still awake and walking around the house. He didn’t need to say anything to his brothers to make sure they knew not to make any noise – they knew to wait for him to tell them when it was ok to get out of bed. Once he was sure that the darker skeleton wasn’t moving around the house anymore, he quietly got out of bed and whispered to his brothers, “ok, I think it’s safe to get up now.”

The other small skeletons quietly got out of their beds to join Cross in the middle of the room. Once they were all together, the leading skeleton looked at Horror. “Did you get it?”

Horror gave him a smirk and took the key to the portal out of his pocket, holding it out to Cross. “Yep.”

Cross smirked as he took the key, satisfied that his plan worked. Killer had mentioned that Nightmare had been sympathetic towards him before when he fell off a counter once and cracked his knee, so they decided to use that as a way to distract him. It couldn’t be a fake injury though – it had to be real or Nightmare would see straight through it. Killer seemed to be ok with taking another injury, since he was the one who volunteered to do it. It also made sense for him to be the one to do it, since he was one of the more reckless ones of the group. He pretended to try balancing on a chair and fell off of it, scrapping his elbow, and while Nightmare was distracted with making sure the injury wasn’t too serious, Horror took the key to the portal out of his pocket, placing the house key in it instead.

“So, I assume we’re bringing the glitch here?” Killer asked.

Cross nodded, “that’s the plan, but we’ll need to be quick. Nightmare might be asleep, but there’s a chance that he could wake up during the night and find out that we’re gone.”

“Then let’s get a move on,” Dust said as they made their way out of the room. Cross took the lead, making sure the others stayed at his pace and moved quietly. They don’t know how light of a sleeper Nightmare is, so they need to be as quiet as possible as they make their way down the hallways to the room with the portal. When they make it to the room, Cross reached up to open the door as quietly as he could, only making a soft click as he turned the knob. He let his brothers go inside before he mostly closed the door, leaving it cracked a bit. He didn’t want to risk closing it right now and making a louder clicking noise.

With the key in hand, the leading skeleton went to the door, taking a deep breath as he hoped that the portal would work the way Nightmare said it would. Remembering what the larger skeleton told them, he unlocked the door and made sure he was thinking of the exact location they wanted the portal to be as he opened it. To his surprise, the portal was showing the exact location he was thinking about.

Cross motioned for his brothers to go in first, waiting for them to step through before he followed them. Once they were through, he looked around at their location. They were surrounded by trees and bushes. “This should be a good spot for the portal. No one ever comes into this part of the woods.”

Dust looked up at the sky – it was bright and sunny out. “It’s daytime here. I guess time moves differently in Nightmare’s universe.”

Cross seemed worried by this, “let’s hope it’s not too different. I hope we’re not too late.”

Cross was about to start heading towards the town when Dust grabbed his shoulder to stop him, “hold your horses, pal. We can’t just go rushing into the orphanage like this – they’ll recognize us instantly. We should at least find some new clothes before we go.”

The leading skeleton looked a bit worried, “you’re right, but how are we supposed to get new clothes? We don’t have any money.”

“We’ll just steal them.” Cross gave Dust a look at that suggestion, making Dust grin and shrug, “Come on, it’s not going to hurt anyone, and we need them if we’re going to pull this off.”

Cross didn’t like the idea of stealing, not because it was illegal, but because it would put them in danger. They know all too well how some people will react to stealing – they’ve had people try to attack them over just a little bit of food before. But… Dust is right. They can’t risk being recognized by the people at the orphanage. With a little sigh, Cross made his decision, “fine, but only one set of clothes for each of us. We can’t carry too much at once or it will slow us down if we end up needing to run.”

With the decision made, they made their way into the town. After walking through the town for a little while they found a convenient that sold clothes and headed inside. The human man at the register watched them as they entered the store, looking a bit suspicious of them. “You kids lost?”

They hadn’t even done anything yet, and this guy was already suspecting them. Dust looked around to see that there was woman in the store as well, looking through the clothes section. He grinned and jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards her, “no, we’re just going back to our mom.” The man looked a bit perplexed by this, since the woman was a human, but he decided not to say anything. It wasn’t unusual for humans to adopt monsters, but it was rare, since most humans aren’t very fond of them.

The boys went over to the woman in the clothing section, who didn’t seem to notice that they called her their mother, or that they were now sticking close to her. Luckily, the clothing section wasn’t very big, so they were able too look through the kid’s clothes without getting too far away from their “mother”. The boys were mainly interested in the hoodies and t-shirts. Horror made an audible gasp when he noticed a green hoodie made to look like a dinosaur with the hood as it’s head and a tail hanging off the back of it. “Look! I can be a dinosaur,” Horror said with glee has he held the hoodie.

Dust grinned at Horror, “that looks pretty cool. I think I’ll get one like that too.” Dust picked out one that looked more like a dragon skull for the hood and had a bone tail on the back. Killer seemed to be drawn to a shirt that said “King” and had a crown printed on it. Cross didn’t seem to be favoring anything in particular until Dust brought a shirt to him, saying, “hey, I hear all the cool kids like wearing shirts with skulls on them.” Cross looked at the shirt, and sure enough it was black with a white skull printed on it.

Cross looked a be skeptical about it, “isn’t that a bit… redundant, since I’m a skeleton?”

Dust just shrugged at him, “maybe, but it might still look good on you. You do want to look cool, don’t you?”

Cross seemed a bit hesitant for a moment, but in the end, he decided to take the shirt. Each little skeleton picked out what they wanted, but now they needed to figure out how to get the clothes out of the store without being caught by the cashier. Cross looked at the human woman that they claimed was their parent. She still didn’t seem to notice them.

The leading skeleton whispered to his brothers, “I have an idea. Take the tags off of the clothes and give them to me, then put the clothes on.” His brothers did what he asked, wondering what he was going to do and abandoning their old clothes. They stayed close to the human woman until she finally finished picking out what she wanted. She had a large pile of clothes in her arms that she carried to the register and dumped on the counter. The boys stayed close behind her. She started sifting through her large purse that seemed to be full of junk, probably looking for her wallet. While she was distracted, Cross put the tags to their clothes on the counter.

The cashier seemed annoyed that they took the tags off of the clothes before paying for them, but he scanned them anyway without a word. This woman had a haircut on her that usually meant she was the type of person who would make a scene if she didn’t get what she wanted, so it was best not to provoke her. After all the items were scanned, the woman finally managed to pull her wallet out of her purse and took a credit card out of it, handing it over to the cashier without even looking at the total. She seemed to be ready to hurry and get out of the store, even though she spent a long time looking through the clothes without any hurry.

Once the cashier gave her the credit card and receipt, she grabbed all her items and walked out of the store with four little skeletons trailing behind her. She still never noticed the little skeletons that tricked her into buying their clothes. Cross let out a sigh of relief when they were finally away from the store. That went a lot easier than he expected. “Ok, now we just need to get into the orphanage.”

Killer grinned, “That shouldn’t be too hard. They barely keep track of the kids there, so it should be easy to slip inside with a group of other kids.”

Cross nodded to this, “just keep your hoods up so they can’t see our faces.” Following his instructions, the skeletons pulled their hoods over their heads to hide their faces and ran off to the orphanage that they remember too well. As they ran, a large building came into view – an orphanage meant for both humans and monsters. It was originally constructed to bring monsters and humans together by having them live and grow up together until they’re adopted, but the boys only have bad memories of this place.

The gates are usually locked to keep any kids from wondering out or any unwelcome adults from wondering in, and you need to speak with a guard at the gate to get in if you want to see the kids. But the boys knew of another way to get in and out. They ran to the back of the fenced in building where part of the fence was hidden by a large tree with some bushes around it. When the boys were here, it didn’t take them long to figure out that they could use this hidden part of the fence as an escape route. The only problem they had was the barbed wire at the top, but they were able to get their hands on some gardening tools to cut the wires.

Luck seemed to be on their side today, since the wires seemed to still be cut, allowing them to easily climb over the fence and get inside. They stayed in the bushes where no one would see them, looking out at the playground. There were some kids playing outside, but they couldn’t just run out there and pretend to be friends with them. They would recognize them and turn them in. They needed to find someone who used to be their friend while they were here. After a moment of scanning the playground, Cross spotted them – a group of older kids who used to play with them. They were much taller that them since these kids are almost in their teens. Usually older kids didn’t hang out with the younger ones, but they liked how creepy they were, so they let the little skeletons join their group.

Cross pointed to the group of older kids, “we need to get their attention.”

“I’ve got it.” Killer picked up a rock and chucked it right at them, nailing one of them in the shoulder.

“Killer! We’re trying to get them to HELP us!” Cross scolded him.

Killer just shrugged with a grin, “it got their attention, though. And I could’ve aimed for his head.”

Cross just rolled his eyes at him and watched the older kids approaching them now. The one who was hit with the rock looked angry, but his expression turned to amusement when he realized who they were. “Hey, it’s you guys! Where have you twerps been?”

“There’s no time to explain. Can you help us get inside? We can’t let the adults recognize us.” Cross said in a hurry. They couldn’t afford to waist time chatting.

“Oh sure, we can help. Just follow us and keep your faces covered.” In the orphanage, it wasn’t uncommon for the older kids to help the younger ones, since there usually wasn’t enough adults around to help every kid. So, while the older kids might not play with the younger ones too often, they do still have to take some responsibility when the younger kids need help. This means that the young group of skeletons won’t look suspicious walking inside with the older ones. The adults will probably just assume that the younger ones need help with something.

They managed to make it to the entrance of the building without raising suspicion. Cross turned to the older group, “Could you wait here for us? We won’t take long, and we need to get back to the bushes from before.”

One older kid gave him a nod, “sure, go do what you need to do. We’ll be here.”

The boys quickly ran through the halls of the building, since most of the kids were playing outside today, they shouldn’t need to worry about the adults wondering the halls. Most of them will be outside, watching the kids. The skeletons made their way to the nursery in no time, quietly opening the door and creeping inside, trying to avoid waking the babies. While most of the adults where outside, there were usually still one or two who remained inside to look after the babies, so if they all suddenly started crying, it would alert the adults. They boys quietly made their way around the room, peaking into each crib until one of them found the one they were looking for. They all looked into the crib with a tiny skeleton with dark bones that occasionally had a few pixels glitching around him.

Killer leaned on the rails to the crib to look down at the tiny dark skeleton, “heya, glitch bitch.”

Cross was quick to give Killer a little punch on his arm, “Killer! Don’t call him that.”

Killer just chuckled with a sly grin, “why? It’s true. He glitches all the time, and he’s always angry, especially if anyone touches him.”

Cross sighed and rolled his eyes at him for the second time. He reached into the crib to get the little skeleton out, who immediately started getting upset and making little angry noises. “Shhh Error, we’re trying to get you out of here. We’re gonna take you somewhere better, ok? Don’t you want to go somewhere better?”

Error still looked angry and pouted a little, but he did want to leave this place, so he stayed quiet. Horror was looking at Error with a bit of worry on his face, “he looks hungry.” Cross nodded to this, looking equally worried. He could tell just from holding the baby that they haven’t been feeding him properly – he’s lighter than he was before, when he’s supposed to be heavier. The leading skeleton changed his expression to one filled with determinations, “let’s get him out of here.”

With the baby in hand, the boys made their way out of the nursery and through the halls to the exit. Just before they made it out, someone called out to them, “What do you kids think you’re doing? Babies are supposed to be in the nursery.” It was one of the adults. They’ve been caught. All four skeletons froze in place, not making any move to turn and look at the adult or she would surely recognize them. She came up behind them and was about to grab one of them.

“Hey, there he is!” One of the older kids came up and took Error from Cross, making the adult pause in surprise. The older kid must’ve seen what was happening and came to help. Error visibly tensed up when he was taken by the other kid – he especially doesn’t like being held by someone he’s not familiar with, but he stayed quiet. The older kid gave the woman a grin, “we just wanted to give this little guy some fresh air. It’s been so long since he’s gotten to go outside.”

The woman just glared at him, “well, he’s not supposed to be outside right now. He should be in the nursery.”

The older kid narrowed his eyes at her, “aw come on, it’s just a little fresh air. You’re not going to be cruel to him, are you? CPS doesn’t take too kindly to cruelty towards babies, especially if they’ve been tipped off that one isn’t being fed as much as he should.”

The woman sputtered at this, clearly seeing that she’s being threatened. After a moment she answered with a huff, “fine, but only for a little while.” Finally, she left them to go do something else.

Cross let out a sigh of relief, “thank you for that.” He reached up to take Error back, who also looked more relieved now that he was being held by someone he knew.

“No problem. Now let’s get you guys back out of here.” He led them back to the group of older kids, and as they walked outside, they made sure to surround Cross as he held Error, preventing any other adults from seeing the baby and trying to interfere again. When they made it back to the bushes, Cross looked back to the group of older kids, “Thank you for everything.”

“It’s no big deal, good luck out there, ok?” Cross nodded to them, then went with his brothers to the fences with the missing barbed wire. He carefully climbed over the fence, making sure he had a good grip on Error so he wouldn’t drop him. Finally, the ordeal was over, so they ran back to the woods where they left the port.

Error stared at the portal in awe. Dust noticed Error’s amazement and chuckled, “cool right? Just wait until you see the house.” Cross nodded with a smile, then motioned for his brothers to go through the portal first. Once they were all through, he went through with Error, closing the portal behind them. When he turned back to his brothers, he noticed that they were now frozen in place and staring straight ahead. Following their gazes, his eyes widened when he realized what was wrong. Nightmare was standing in the doorway to the room, watching them.

“…that was a decent plan to take the key from me, I’ll give you that, but it had a flaw in it. You decided to do it at dinner. Why would Horror ever abandon a plate of food just because Killer got a little scrape on his elbow unless something else was going on. It was smart to swap the key with the house key – it had me a bit confused when I checked for it after bandaging Killer’s scrape, but I was already suspicious at that point, so I checked for the house key, and just as I thought, it was gone.” Nightmare stepped farther into the room, looking at the tiny skeleton in Cross’ arms. “So, tell me, why the hell did you think it was a good idea to kidnap someone’s baby and bring it here?”

Cross swallowed roughly as he watched the larger skeleton. He wasn’t enraged like he usually would be, his voice and expression were neutral, but he could sense that he was angry. He was starting to prefer it when Nightmare was enraged and yelling, because right now he was more terrified of Nightmare than he had been any of those other times he got angry. But he knew one thing for certain, lying to him would just make it worse, so he had no choice but to tell him the truth.

“…he’s our younger brother.”

* * *

Here's the boy's new designs: 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby Error joins the party!


	12. Christmas chapter (not canon)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to write a Christmas chapter, since the holiday is coming up. This is not canon by the way. It's just an idea I had and wanted to write, and I thought you guys might be interested in reading it.

It was Christmas Eve that night, and Nightmare was reading a book in the library. The boys were already in bed, having been sent to sleep about an hour ago. It was normal for Nightmare to sometimes stay up after the boys have gone to bed – sometimes he just can’t sleep. Tonight, however, he wasn’t just staying up because he couldn’t sleep, there was something he needed to do, and the boys needed to be asleep for it. So, when an hour ticked by, he closed the book he was reading and made his way to the boys’ room.

Quietly, Nightmare opened the door to the small skeletons’ room and creeped inside. He looked over each one, making sure they were asleep. He noticed that Killer had his blanket kicked off – he seems to be a restless sleeper - …, so he slowly moved the blanket to cover him back up so he wouldn’t get cold. He hesitated to move his hand away for a moment as a brief thought played in his head, one that made him wonder if he should give Killer a pat on his head before leaving…. Moving his hand away, he decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea. With all four little skeletons tucked in and sound asleep, the older skeleton made his way out of their room, quietly closing the door behind him.

Now that he’s sure that the boys are asleep and won’t be snooping to see what he’s doing; Nightmare made his way to his room. Error’s crib was there with the small skeleton sound asleep, and with any luck, he’ll stay asleep for the rest of the night, but Nightmare knew that it was just wishful thinking. He would most likely wake up at 1am, wanting to be fed. That was something to think about later – for now, he went to his closet, opening it and moving some boxes out of his way. There, hidden at the back of the closet, were some neatly wrapped presents. He carefully took them out and started head to the living room.

Upon entering the living room, a tree covered in decorations and lights could be seen in the corner of the room. That damn thing has been an eye sore ever since it was set up. To tell the truth, Nightmare wasn’t entirely sure why he was doing all of this for the boys – it certainly wasn’t because he cared, that would be ridiculous. He supposed that it was because the boys are not immortal like he is, so they only have a short amount of time to enjoy something like this, and it was also a traditional event that mortals would put on. They may be living with him, but they are still not like him, so he figured that it would be alright to allow them to celebrate their traditions.

Kneeling in front of the tree, Nightmare began gently placing each present underneath it for the boys to find in the morning. As he was placing the presents, he glanced over the different decorations covering the branches. He doesn’t much care for very colorful things, so he didn’t pay much attention to the brightly colored ornaments, but there were several… crudely made decorations that the boys decided to add. Their little crafts ranged from plastic spoons with smiley faces to wooden clothes pins made to look like crocodiles. He couldn’t help but smile at how ridiculous the homemade decorations were, but it was their tree and their tradition, so they were free to put whatever they wanted on it.

With the presents in place, Nightmare stepped back from the tree. With the sun down and the lights out, the tree actually didn’t seem so blinding. It was lighting the room with a soft glow that was… pleasant, but despite this, Nightmare still couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable around it. It wasn’t that the tree looked bad or that it was too colorful, it… brought back memories of another glowing tree from his past, that he didn’t want to think about. He decided to move to the breakfast nook where the illumination from the tree was much dimmer. The nook had windows all around the table and chairs there, allowing him to easily see outside.

As he gazed out into the darkness of the night, he couldn’t stop his thoughts from drifting to his brother. He could feel his positive aura faintly calling out to him, still holding onto the hope that he will go back to the Nightmare he knew long ago. The fool. That Nightmare is long gone, and he won’t be coming back anytime soon – he isn’t even sure if it’s possible to go back anymore. The damage has been done regardless. Even if he could change back into his old form, he still wouldn’t be able to erase the memories from back then – he can’t just forget about the pain.

Nightmare was startled from his thoughts when the phone in his pocket started buzzing, making a faint humming sound. How did someone get his number? It shouldn’t be in any records. Taking the device out of his pocket, he didn’t recognize the number displayed on the screen. Thinking that it must be a scam caller who got his number at random, he denied the call. With a sigh, he put his phone on the table, thinking about how he will need to change his number, in case someone else finds it. Before he could go back to gazing into the darkness outside, his phone started buzzing again. When he checked it, it was the same number as before… maybe the scam callers are getting smarter and learning to call twice if the person doesn’t answer the first time. He denied the call again, but he didn’t set it down this time. Instead, he kept the phone in his hand and watched the blank screen, waiting to see if they would try again.

As he suspected, the same number tried calling again. This couldn’t be a coincidence – whoever this was most likely wasn’t a scam caller, they would’ve given up by now and at least waited until much later to try again. He decided to answer this time, putting the phone next to his skull where his ear would be, “whoever this is, you have the wrong number.”

“Nightmare?”

The dark skeleton froze when he recognized the voice. How the f**k did his brother get his number?! When Dream didn’t hear an answer for a moment, he spoke again, “Nightmare, wanted to talk to you.”

Without answering, Nightmare quickly ended the call. He didn’t know how Dream managed to get his number, he did NOT want to talk to him, especially right now – not when his mind had been drifting to the past when he and Dream were still happy together. His phone started buzzing again – Dream again. He denied the call, and this time he blocked the number so he wouldn’t be able to call again. When a minute or two ticked by with Nightmare just staring at his phone, he let out a sigh of relief as the phone stayed silent. Now he will definitely have to change his number, or Dream will just use a different number to call him.

Putting his phone back in his pocket, he decided that it was probably time to head to bed. He left the living room and started making his way to his room, but he paused as he was passing the foyer… he could sense someone outside the front door – someone with a bright and positive aura. No… it couldn’t be. There was a light knock on the door when he turned to look at it. How did he find the house again? Nightmare has made sure to move the house between AUs pretty often, so how did his brother know where to look?

Nightmare slowly walked over to the front door, hesitating before opening it. To no surprise, Dream was on the other side. Nightmare quickly summoned his tentacles, raising then to attack, but Dream quickly held up his hands in surrender. “Wait! I don’t want to fight! I just wanted to see you.”

Nightmare glared at him, “I don’t give a sh*t about what you want. Leave. Now.”

He was about to slam the door in his brother’s face, but Dream quickly spoke again, “wait please! Please just hear me out. I wanted to see you because it’s Christmas Eve, and…. Everyone always spends time with their families on Christmas, so… I couldn’t stop thinking about you. You’re the only family I have… so please… please can we just talk?” Nightmare was still glaring at the brighter skeleton, but he seemed to lower his tentacles just a tad as he listened. When he didn’t answer, Dream tried again, “please, I just want to spend some time with you. I promise I won’t be long.”

The darker skeleton looked away for a moment as he thought about this. It was true, that Dream was also the only family he had, but he didn’t typically celebrate the mortals’ holidays, and he wasn’t quite sure why Dream would want to participate in them either, let alone with him. But… if Dream knew about where to find him and waisted the opportunity for a surprise attack just so he could talk… then maybe he was telling the truth, and Dream is a terrible liar anyway, so he would know if he wasn’t being honest. The boys were also asleep, so he didn’t need to worry about them, and he doubted that Dream would go looking for them anyway.

With a little sigh, Nightmare lowered his tentacles, letting then dissolve into his back, and moved to allow Dream to enter. “Fine… but only for a little while.” Dream looked relieved and stepped inside… they both just stood there for a little while after Nightmare closed the door behind him. Nightmare never expected his brother to be a guest in his house, so he wasn’t sure what to say, and he suspected that Dream came here without much of a plan, so he wasn’t sure what to do either. When the silence stretched on for a bit, Dream looked like he was about to say something, but Nightmare spoke up first, “I’ll make some hot chocolate…” He didn’t bother to ask Dream if he wanted any – he knew that he would.

The lighter skeleton followed the darker one, as he headed to the living room where the kitchen was attached on the left. As they walked, Dream decided to try talking to his brother, “so, … where are the children?”

“Sleeping, so don’t make too much noise and wake them up, “Nightmare answered as they entered the living room. He took a left where the kitchen was located and started opening the cabinet to take out some packets of hot chocolate. Dream seemed to stop in his tracks when they entered the room, staring at the glowing and colorfully decorated tree with shock, “you… got a Christmas tree… and presents for the children?”

Nightmare grumbled angrily at this, “what I decide to do is none of your business.” His attempt to get his brother to stop talking about the tree and presents seemed to only make him look at him with hope-filled eyes. He decided to ignore it and work on making the hot beverages, filling a kettle up with water and putting it on the stove to heat. There was more silence as they waited for the kettle to finish heating the water, so instead of standing around awkwardly, Dream opted to sit on the couch in the living room.

Once the water in the kettle was heated, Nightmare filled two mugs with the hot water and stirred a packet of coco powder into each one. He carried both mugs into the living room, sitting one of the coffee table for Dream – he didn’t want to risk handing it to him and touching his hand. Dream didn’t seem to notice, or he didn’t care as he took the mug, blowing on it a little before taking a sip. Nightmare sat down on the opposite side of the couch and sipped from his own mug as well just so he was doing something, since he didn’t know what to say. He doesn’t usually drink sweet beverages, but he had the packets of hot chocolate for the Christmas tradition and what not, and he knew that Dream likely wouldn’t want bitter coffee, so hot chocolate it is.

After a moment of silence filled with Dream looking like he was contemplating what he was going to say, he finally decided on something. “This is a really nice house you have.” Nightmare made a ‘mm’ sound in response, instead of answering with words. Dream decided to continue, since it seemed like Nightmare wasn’t going to speak, “I didn’t think you would ever get one, since… you uh, usually don’t like um… human things.”

“It isn’t just a human thing. There are plenty of monsters who live in houses as well.” Nightmare answered.

“Right, it’s just… we only ever say humans living in them… back then…” Dream seemed hesitant to mention their past. Nightmare didn’t respond, hoping that his brother would get the hint to stop talking about back then. Unfortunately, this line of thought lead Dream to another topic that he also didn’t want to talk about.

“I…I’ve really missed you, Nightmare.” The dark skeleton let out an annoyed sigh – here it comes. “It’s… been really hard going home everyday and you’re not there… no one is there actually…” When Nightmare didn’t answer, he kept going. “I mean… I could always go see Ink, but he’s so…”

“Insane?” Nightmare interjected.

“I wouldn’t say that… he just has trouble keeping track of things, so he tends to run around everywhere, and it’s hard to know where he is all the time.” The lighter skeleton glanced over to his brother, but it didn’t seem like he was going to say anything else, so he looked away again sadly. “I just… I miss how we were back then… I miss you so much… Nightmare… I know that nothing I say will ever make up for everything that happened back then…” He took in a shaking breath as he tried to hold back the tears. “But… I’m so… so sorry for everything.” His attempts to hold back the tears were failing as his breath started hitching and golden tears started spilling from his sockets. “And you don’t have to forgive me. You can continue to hate me, and that will be ok. I deserve it.” He started trying to wipe the tears away in an attempt to pull himself together, but it just seemed to make him cry even more. “And you can spend the rest of your life knowing that you were right. I’m just a dumb, awful brother.”

There was a tapping sound, and it took Nightmare a moment to realize that he had started tapping on his mug as he was listening to his brother. He didn’t want to say anything, but this was all making him so angry – how could he not say anything?

“I do hate you, Dream…. I hate you so much it hurts.” There was a long pause with nothing but the sounds of Dream crying before he spoke again, “… it hurts… because I can’t forget about how much I love you.” This statement made Dream look at him with wide, tear filled eyes. “And it hurts… because I can’t forget about how we were back then… how we used to play, laugh, and do everything together. And it hurts… because I know that no matter what I do, you won’t feel the same about me… you won’t love me as much as I love you.” When he noticed Dream about to say something, he quickly snapped at him before he could get a word out, “DON’T! Don’t try to say that you feel the same about me! We both know that you picked the humans over me back then, and you would still do the same today.”

Dream didn’t know what to say to that. What was he supposed to say? Of course, he would still side with the humans today. Nightmare wasn’t giving him a choice. When Dream didn’t say anything for a moment, Nightmare continued, “you think that YOU’RE hurting? Heh, you have no idea how much you kill me every day. Not a single day has gone by that I haven’t thought about you. But no, YOU’RE the one who’s hurting. Of course, it’s all about you and how you feel. You never once asked about how I feel, or if I was ok. No, the first thing you said to me after all these years was ‘what have I done?’”

Nightmare seemed to only get angrier as he spoke. He put his mug down on the coffee table so he wouldn’t squeeze it so hard it breaks. “You’re so wrapped up in your own sorrow and your own needs that never stop to think about how anyone else feels. You think you’re so special and good that you couldn’t possible hurt anyone around you. But no, it couldn’t possible be you who’s the problem – it’s everyone else who’s the problem, right?”

Dream looked like he was about to say something, but he was interrupted by a little voice from the doorway. “Nightmare?” It was then that Nightmare noticed the little skeleton peaking around the doorway to the living room. Cross didn’t seem to realize who Nightmare was talking to as he rubbed at his sockets sleepily until Dream looked over the couch at him. The little skeleton froze in place when he recognized the brighter skeleton and realized his mistake.

Nightmare quickly teleported over to the little skeleton, wrapping a tentacle around him to keep him behind him. He moved away from the doorway, pulling Cross with him, “I think it’s time for you to leave.” Dream looked between Nightmare and the child for a moment, before he placed his mug on the coffee table and stood up to leave, realizing that his brother didn’t want him anywhere near his children. Nightmare followed him to the foyer, making sure that he didn’t go anywhere else in the house with Cross trailing behind him.

When Dream made it to the door, he turned around and looked like he wanted to say something, but the glare Nightmare gave him told him that it was a bad idea, so he opened the door and only said, “goodbye, Nightmare,” as he left. When his brother finally left, Nightmare turned to the little skeleton behind him, “Cross, what are you doing out of bed?”

“I heard yelling, so I came to see what was going on.” The small skeleton answered nervously. He normally would be sassy towards the darker skeleton for asking such a question, but this time he wasn’t. Nightmare gave a sigh. Of course, he heard them and came to investigate. At least he didn’t wake his brothers as well. “Well, it’s fine now, so go back to bed.”

With that, Nightmare made his way back to the living room, collecting the mugs and taking them to the sink to be washed. He figured that washing the mugs would be a good distraction to take his mind off of everything that just happened – he didn’t want to think about it anymore. As he was washing the mugs, he could sense the tiny skeleton watching him from the doorway. “I thought I told you to go to bed,” he said without turning around.

“…are you…ok?” Cross asked hesitantly. This made Nightmare pause for a moment – he didn’t expect anyone to actually care enough to ask him that. After a minute, he finally turned to look at the little skeleton. “I’ll be fine… I just need a minute. It’s nothing you need to worry about, so go back to bed, alright?”

Cross seemed hesitant to leave, but after a moment he decided that it was probably a good idea to give Nightmare some time alone – prying would probably only anger him. So, the little skeleton headed back to his room, leaving Nightmare alone in the quiet to wash the mugs in piece.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, this is kind of a peak into how Nightmare feels. I don't know if he would ever actually say any of this to Dream though.


	13. Baby’s First Mission Pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to divide this chapter into two parts, since it's been a while since I've updated this XD. Also sorry that I've been taking a bit longer to update.

It’s been a few weeks since Nightmare started training the boys. It hasn’t exactly been easy, since they brought home the tiny brat. The little monster complains almost every hour, even at night, and if anyone touches him, he screams his little head off. Nightmare has been having to remember to use a blanket as a barrier around the little demon anytime he has to pick him up - he seems to do a lot better if he doesn’t touch him directly. With all of this baby nonsense going on, he hasn’t had a lot of time to train the boys, and time is of the essence now that Dream is awake.

Since time is not on their side anymore, Nightmare has decided that the fastest way for the boys to learn is with experience. So today he’s leading the boys to the portal room to send them on their first mission. Of course, it won’t be anything too difficult, since they’ve never been on a mission before – this will mostly just be a test run to see how well they perform. Despite being so young, they’re actually very smart, Dust being the smartest of them all. He may not act intelligent with his lazy demeanor, but he was able to surpass Cross when it comes to reading in only a few weeks of Nightmare teaching him, even though he would spend most of the time doodling or goofing off while he was teaching. The older skeleton has no doubts that they will be able to learn quickly from this exercise.

As they entered the portal room, the boys looked a bit confused. Why would he bring them to this room if they weren’t allowed to go outside, let alone to another AU? Nightmare just opened the door to the portal, opening a way to the AU he picked out. It’s a much more peaceful area – this AU has only ever seen a pacifist rout, so even the Sans here should be less cautious.

“I’m sending you on your first mission to a pacifist timeline,” Nightmare announced as he turned back to the boys.

“…but you only just started training us. Why do we have to do this so early?” Cross pointed out.

“If you’re worried about it being dangerous, then you don’t have to worry that much. This timeline has not had any violence in it, not even a neutral rout. Also, I wouldn’t be sending you on a mission this early if the situation were different. Now that Dream is awake, we don’t have much time before he decides to attack again, so I need you to learn quickly. The fastest way for you to learn is to experience this for real, but don’t worry, I don’t expect you to do much for your first mission. I just want you to cause negative feelings however you can – there are no rules other than stay out of fights. If anyone gets hostile just run,” Nightmare explained.

“…and what if Dream or Ink show up?” Cross asked a bit warily.

“If you see either of them, then come back to the portal immediately and close the door behind you. Do NOT confront them.” Nightmare pressed. He knew that if they tried to fight Dream or Ink, they certainly wouldn’t win. He doubted that Dream would want to hurt them, since they’re only children, but Ink is unpredictable. If that psychotic artist decides to fight them, they will surely die.

“Are you not coming with us?” Cross asked, he didn’t seem to like that Nightmare was sending them to an unfamiliar AU with no supervision. What if something happens?

“No, since you decided to bring Error here, someone has to stay here and look after him. This place isn’t that dangerous – I wouldn’t send you here if it was. Just don’t be idiots, and you’ll be fine.” With that, he motioned for the boys to step into the AU. Cross was a bit hesitant, but once he was through, the rest followed with no problems. “I’ll come check on you in about an hour…” When he saw how Cross still seemed worried, he sighed, “… you’ll be fine. Even if something does happen, I’ll be back soon anyway, so I’ll be able to stop it.”

That didn’t seem to make Cross feel better, but he nodded regardless. Nightmare took that as his cue to leave, so he left the portal room to go check on Error. With the larger skeleton gone, the boys took in their surroundings. The portal dropped them in what looked like an alleyway of a big city. This alleyway in particular looked pretty secluded, since there wasn’t even much trash around to show that anyone had been here. At least they didn’t have to worry about anyone finding the portal. 

Cross turned to his brothers, “alright, so what should we do first? We only have about an hour before Nightmare comes back, so we should probably do something that will cause negativity quickly.”

Dust grinned as he answered, “stealing always seems to piss people off pretty quick. We’ll just have to make sure they actually notice that the stuff is missing.”

Nodding, Cross contemplated this, “yes, but that could also lead them to trying to hurt one of us. It’s not like before when we could steal without anyone noticing, they’ll actually be chasing after us this time.”

Dust shrugged, “then we’ll just have to outrun them… If you’re really worried about it, then we could just steal from people we know won’t be able to catch up to us, like old people, or people who don’t exercise.”

“That could work, but others could get involved regardless. Some people won’t just stand by and watch it happen, so there might be people who can catch up to us who will chase us,” Cross pointed out.

Killer spoke up this time, “these alleyways are pretty dark and spooky. They probably won’t follow us if we run through them.”

Dust nodded to this, “right, so we just have to pick a place with lots of escape routes like this.”

Horror bounced a bit in excitement, “we should go to a place with lots of food and steal from there. There’s probably lots of alleyways around places with lots of food.”

Cross nodded as he thought all of this over, “that’s true, and a place with lots of food will likely have lots of people, so we can use the large crowds to our advantage to cause confusion and get to an alleyway to escape, and food is one of the easier things to steal.” Cross gave one last nod as he decided that this would be a good enough plan, “alright, let’s go look for a place like that then.”

With a plan made, the boys made their way out of the alleyways, walking along the city streets in search of a more populated area. Dust held onto Horror’s hand so he wouldn’t run off after a food truck or something as they walked. In a big city like this, it didn’t take them long to find a crowded food area. Everywhere they looked, there was a food stand of some sort on every block, and since there were so many buildings here, there were many alleyways for them to run through. With so many people around, the boys could see that this city wasn’t just populated with humans but monsters as well. It seems that monsters and humans are living peacefully here, since the monsters aren’t being chased away from certain areas or being given cruel looks or insults.

Guess Nightmare wasn’t lying when he said that this place wasn’t dangerous. Everyone seems so… happy here. This was a drastic difference to the au they came from. In their au, it was rare that they would ever see another monster around – the monsters may have had the same rights as humans, but that didn’t mean that they were welcomed. This was the main reason why the boys couldn’t get adopted – no human would ever adopt a monster, and no monster was stupid enough to enter an area mainly populated with humans. It also didn’t help that there were no orphanages specifically for monsters, so they were stuck in a human one where they would likely never be adopted.

Cross shook his head, dismissing those memories from his mind. They needed to focus right now, so it wasn’t the time to reminisce on their past or think about how different things could’ve been if they were in this au instead. “Ok, everyone pick a food stand. Once, you’ve taken something, we’ll meet up again in that alleyway, “Cross said as he pointed to the alleyway closest to them. They all nodded and went their separate ways to pick out a stand. As Cross looked around, his eyes settled on a taco truck… It probably wouldn’t be as easy to steal from since it’s enclosed… but he couldn’t help wondering over to the truck anyway, his mouth watering as he craved a delicious taco.

Luckily, the line to the truck wasn’t very long, so he stood in the line patiently. Since the food was enclosed, he had no choice but to actually place an order and get them to bring the food closer to the window. Once it was close enough, he could snatch it from them and take off. One good thing about it being enclosed was that they wouldn’t be able to chase him so easily – they would have to waste time getting out of the truck. With a plan formed in his head, he walked up to the window when it was his turn to order.

The person in the truck had to stick his head out of the window in order to look down at him. “Hey little guy. What can I get for you?” The human inside said with a smile.

“Just a taco,” Cross answered with a neutral expression.

“Alright, that’ll be $5,” the human said expectantly.

“…my mom should be here in a minute to pay,” Cross lied, tilting his head down a bit to look embarrassed.

The human gave him a patient smile, “That’s alright, I’ll get it ready for you while we wait for her to get here.” Which is exactly what Cross was hoping for. This guy seemed too nice for his own good, or maybe it was just because Cross was a kid. He probably wouldn’t do this for anyone else if they were an adult. After a minute or two, the human came back to the window and placed a bag on the bar. It looked like he was about to say something to Cross, but before he could, the little skeleton jumped up to the window and snatched the bag, taking off towards the nearest alleyway.

He could hear the human in the truck yell “HEY!” and the sounds of other people possibly trying to go after him, but he didn’t bother to look back. When he entered the alley, the sounds of the people started to fade away, seems like Killer was right to assume that they wouldn’t be followed in a place like this. Now that it was quiet, he looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him before trotting to the alley he told the others to meet in.

His brothers were already there when Cross made it to the alley, which made since – he had to wait in a line for his food, and the others likely didn’t do that. Horror was already stuffing his cheekbones with whatever was left of the food he took, or it could’ve been someone else’s food with how quick he eats. “How did it go?” Cross asked as he approached the group.

“No one was followed, and we successfully pissed off a lot of people,” Dust said with a grin.

“really?”

All four little skeletons froze when a new deep voice sounded in the alley behind them. They slowly turned around to see a larger skeleton wearing a blue jacket and black shorts with a playful grin on his face. “sorry to interrupt your little meeting, but i couldn’t help noticing all of the commotion your little ‘grub and go’ caused. now, don’t get me wrong, i like a good prank every now and then too, but stealing is kind of taking it a bit too far, don’t ya think?”

The little group started backing away as the larger skeleton spoke, looking nervous. “hey easy kiddos, don’t look so rattled. i’m not gonna turn you in or anything. i was just curious when i heard there were little skeletons stealing food in the area, and last time i checked my bro and i were the only skeletons left… but uh, listen kiddos, you don’t have to steal food. if you’re hungry, i’d be happy to get you some grub. i know a great place to get burgers and fries if you’re interested.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder when he mentioned a place to get food, but the boys didn’t budge or say anything to his offer.

The larger skeleton sighed and gave them a sad smile, dropping his hand to his side, “yeah, that’s fair. when i was around your age, i wouldn’t trust someone with an offer like that either. but… trust me when I say that I’ve been in your situation before. there was a time when my bro and I were without a home or money for food, and i was way too young to get a job… but there are some nice people in the world, even if it doesn’t seem like it. no kid should ever have to go through what i did, and i don’t want to see you kids go through that…, so please, let me help you, at least a little bit. “

Just from looking at this guys face, Cross could tell that he wasn’t lying – he genuinely wanted to help them. He could also tell from the way he was talking to them that he wasn’t just offering to give them food. This guy wanted to give them a lot more than that – a home, a family… a real one. They have the opportunity to be taken in by someone who will actually care about them and treat them like real people and not inconveniences. An offer like that… it’s hard to say no to…, but what would Nightmare do if they just left him for this guy? More importantly, what would Nightmare do to this guy in order to take them back?

...

With a little sigh, Cross answered, “Sorry, but I think you’re mistaken. We already have parents and a home with food. We were just stealing because we thought it would be funny…”

The skeleton’s smile seemed to drop a bit, changing his expression to a neutral, almost sad one. “i see…,” It wasn’t hard to tell that he knew Cross was lying, but he wasn’t going to call him out on it. “alright then, i’ll stop bothering you, but before i go…”

When the skeleton took a step towards them and reached into his pocket, Cross flinched back. “easy kiddo, i’m just giving you my phone number. you can call me if you ever need anything, i’ll answer.” He held out a slip of paper with some numbers scribbled onto it. Cross hesitated to take it, but before he could decide if they should have it, Dust snatched it out of his hand, looking at it with a grin, “heh, nice, we got his digits.”

Cross gave Dust a puzzled look, but the older skeleton chuckled, seeming to think Dust’s comment was amusing for some reason. Must be another joke or something that Dust found online when using Nightmare’s computer – he’ll have to ask him about that later. With that, the older skeleton stepped back from them and gave them a little wave, “alright, i hope i’ll see you kids around sometime, or maybe get a prank call or two later.”

Dust chuckled, “bold of you to hand your number out and NOT expect to get prank called.”

The older skeleton chuckled again, “well, i’m looking forward to it, and by the way, the name’s sans, sans the skeleton. see ya kids.” In a flash, the skeleton disappeared right before their eyes. It wasn’t very surprising to them, since Nightmare has teleported around the house before as well. They’ll have to ask him to teach them how to do that someday.

Dust shoved the paper into his pocket as Cross sighed in relief once Sans was gone. It wasn’t that he seemed like he was going to hurt them, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. CRUNCH. Cross flinched and looked around to where the noise came from, …it was just Horror…. EATING HIS TACO?? “Horror! I wanted that taco! ...” He then noticed all the wrappers at Horror’s feet, seems he’s eaten all of the food that the boys took today. “were you just eating the whole time Sans was here?”

Horror was just munching on the taco as Cross spoke, until he noticed that he was serious, “… he seemed nice…”

Cross sighed and shook his head at his gluttonous brother. So much for the taco… He watched in misery as Horror shoved the last of the taco on his mouth, munching away until he noticed Cross staring at him, “…oh, do you want it back?”

Before he could spit out the partially chewed taco, Cross held up his hands and backed away, “no, it’s too late now anyway.” Horror just shrugged and swallowed the remains of the taco, while Killer tried to hold back his laughter at the situation. Cross just glared at Killer, then motioned for the group to follow him, “come on, Nightmare will probably be checking on us soon, so let’s get back to the portal.”

“Aww, already? But we just got started.” Killer whined a bit.

“well, he said that he would check on us in about an hour and it’s been a while, so we should head back.” Cross shrugged, then proceeded to walk, ignoring any further complaints. The boys teased each other as they walked back to the alley way where they left the portal, mostly Killer poking fun at Cross about his poor taco.

Once they turned the corner to the ally, they all froze, seeing that someone else was standing there staring quizzically at the portal. It was a skeleton, wearing a brown scarf and holding a giant paint brush. A bead of sweat formed on Cross’s skull as he recognized the skeleton.

Before they could sneak back round the corner, the skeleton seemed to notice them and spun around on his heal to face them, placing his hands on his hips, “Oh! Hello! So, you’re the ones messing around with this au.” Ink gave them a playful smile, similar to the one he was giving Nightmare the day he wanted to fight him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliff hanger aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
> 
> If you like this story, then consider following me on Twitter! I sometimes will tweet drawings of the boys shenanigans there. My twitter: https://twitter.com/Sirsen_nohope


	14. Baby’s First Mission Pt.2

The boys stood in the dark alleyway frozen in place as the artistic looking skeleton smiles back at them in front of their only escape. Cross frantically looks around, trying to think of anything they could do. They’ve already been spotted, and in a cramped area like this, they don’t have many places to run or hide. The walls of the alley are suffocatingly close on either side of them, and there aren’t many paths for them to weave through, meaning that they would only have one direction to run in. Seeing how Ink’s legs are much longer than theirs, he would catch up to them easily.

Looking back at the portal, Cross started wondering if maybe they could get to it somehow. Ink isn’t a very broad skeleton – he’s very thin, so maybe they could slip past him. That thought was quickly shattered when Ink followed his gaze to the portal behind him. “Oh, is this yours?” Cross felt his soul sink as Ink reached for the doorknob on the other side of the portal, closing the door and causing the portal to vanish. All the while, Ink was smiling like nothing was wrong, “I’ll just close that for you.”

Cross could feel his soul racing as their only hope for escape vanished before his eyes. What do they do now? What can they do? They’re trapped. Nightmare’s only instructions were to run to the portal if they saw Dream or Ink, but now they can’t. What are they supposed to do now?

His thoughts stopped abruptly when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned to see Dust giving him a narrowed look. Right, don’t panic. Panicking isn’t going to help them right now. He needs to think. If they could just stall for time, then maybe Nightmare will show up and get them out of this situation. Running isn’t going to work, and Nightmare said not to fight, so talking is their only option.

Judging from Ink’s excitable demeanor, he seems to like talking. Said skeleton even proves as much when he continues babbling without needing an answer, “usually I wouldn’t interfere with little stuff that happens out of the usual in aus, but my new buddy, Dream, asked me to investigate any unusual behaviors in the aus. He wasn’t very clear on what kinds of behaviors to watch out for, so I figured I’d investigate any and all out of the norm stuff in the aus no matter how small.”

Cross opened his mouth to say something but was silenced when Ink continued talking again. At this rate, they may as well just let him do all the talking and stall himself. “Dream also asked me to try to put a stop to the disturbance in the aus if it was caused by Nightmare and seeing as how you kids seem to work for him, this counts as Nightmare causing the disturbance.” Cross flinched back when Ink reached for the giant brush on his back, readying it to attack. He had a wonderous smile on his face as he spoke his next words. “Wow, I never thought I would ever have to kill children.” His smile was a stark contrast to his words, but it soon shifted to one that seemed to fit perfectly when he spoke again. His eye lights disappeared from his sockets and his smile stretched to a thin one that was disturbing to look at. “Is it bad that I’m excited for this?”

The leading skeleton’s eye lights shrank to little shaking pin pricks at Ink’s words. He…he wants to… kill them? Why?? There is no reason to kill them. All he is supposed to do is stop them, which he’s already done just with his presence alone. He doesn’t need to do this, and why does he look so excited about it?

With this newly added fear, Cross reaches to which ever brother is closest to him on either side, nudging them back to at least get them a little farther away from this psychopath. Dust was closest on his left and moved back without any resistance – he seemed to sense the danger they were in as well. Killer was the closest on his right, but he didn’t budge when Cross tried to move him back. He held his ground with a smile stretched on his face that could rivel Ink’s right now. His red target soul was shaking, itching for a fight. Cross couldn’t let that happen.

He needed to keep Ink talking. As long as he was distracted with talking, they would be safe. “…listen, we don’t-, “before Cross could finish, Ink was suddenly right in front of him and before he could blink, the giant brush cracked across his skull with a force so powerful, it knocked him off his feet, sliding across the hard cemented ground on his back.

His world went black for a moment. His senses slowly started coming back to him. He couldn’t hear anything aside from the ringing noise in his skull. Through his blurry vision, he could barely make out Dust hovering over him. There was a thick metallic taste in his mouth mixed with magic, and he nearly chocked on something hard sitting on his tongue. Dust helped him sit up, as his hearing and sight started clearing. Once he was sitting up right, he spit out the hard thing in his mouth into his hand… it was a tooth with traces of his purple blood on it. He could faintly hear Dust make a breathy chuckle as he examined the tooth and investigated Cross’s mouth. He said something along the lines of “at least it was a baby tooth” but Cross couldn’t be sure, since his hearing still wasn’t all there yet.

Finally, his senses cleared enough for the ringing in his skull to stop and for him to make out what was going on. Dust was kneeling at his side, an arm around his shoulders to keep him steady. Killer and Horror were now facing Ink in battle-ready stances. A real knife glimmered in Killer’s hand – he must’ve stolen it from the kitchen again. While he could only see the back of Horror’s skull, he could tell from his stance that his red eye light was probably filling his entire socket right now. Ink giggled manically, “are you down already? I didn’t even use full power on that hit.”

Suddenly, Killer lunged towards Ink, Horror following his lead. Killer jumped up to slash his knife at Ink, who blocked it with the metal part of his brush, making a loud ‘tink’ sound through the ally. When Horror pounced at him, he used the opposite end of his brush to bock him, making him bit down on the wood with a snarl. Ink smirked at Killer, “aren’t you a little young to be playing with knives?”

Killer didn’t bother answering, instead he pounced at Ink again. Ink swung the opposite end of his brush with Horror still attached to it at Killer, making them collide with each other and slam into the nearest wall. They both collapsed on the ground not moving anymore.

Cross stared in shock at their limp bodies and started trembling. They can’t fight him – he’s too strong, and he isn’t even using his full strength. There’s no way they can win and talking to him doesn’t seem like it will work either. They have to run, even if he might catch them, at least there’s a chance that they could get away. Maybe he and Dust could get to Killer and Horror somehow and carry them away as they flee. He needs to get up and do something, but… he can’t. He can’t stand. He can’t think. He can’t breathe. All he can do is sit there and tremble in fear. Why can’t he just MOVE?

Then Dust stood up, making Cross finally look away from the other skeletons to look up at him. Dust stuffed his hand in his pockets and had his signature lazy grin on his face, but his eyes were serious. How is he so calm? He’s not even shaking. Cross can’t sense any fear from him. Ink smirks and raises a browbone at Dust, “ooo, finally getting serious? Guess I should get serious too.”

Dust didn’t even flinch at the promise of Ink using his full strength this time. Before Cross could say anything, Dust dashed towards Ink. No. No, it won’t work – he can’t beat him. He needs to stop. “Dust! Stop!” Cross cried out. To his surprise, Dust actually stopped and looked back at him with a quizzical expression. Ink took advantage of the distraction and dashed the rest of the way to him, swinging his brush. Dust sensed him approaching and turned to face him, but it was too late. The brush collided with his ribs, making a loud cracking sound. It wasn’t the same sound as when Cross was hit – this time it was the sound of bones crushing.

Cross watched in horror as Dust limply fell to the ground. It wasn’t the same as with Killer and Horror, at least you could still see them moving slightly. Dust wasn’t moving at all. He was like a doll that had been broken and dropped to the ground. No signs of life. He… he didn’t mean for that to happen. He just wanted to stop Dust from getting hurt, but in doing that, he was the one who caused it. Dread and regret filled his soul. He was supposed to protect them. He was supposed to lead them. He was supposed to find a family for them so they could be happy. He feels so hopeless. He failed them. And now they’re all going to die here.

…

No

Cross forced himself off the ground and fire filled his soul. He couldn’t describe the emotion he was feeling, only that it blazed inside of him like a burning star. He won’t let them die here. He REFUSES to let them die here. He hasn’t pushed through so much suffering for the past year just to be killed by some psychopath. He WILL protect them. He WILL give them a happy future. Cross heaved a shaky breath – his body still trembled, and tears streaked down his face, but his magic was blazing inside him. He could feel it trying to summon something – he wasn’t sure what, but he didn’t care.

Ink smirked at him, “oh, so you finally showed up. Good, I was starting to get bored.” His words only made the blaze of his magic stronger. He didn’t care what his magic decided to do. All he cared about was attacking this guy somehow. Taking a deep breath, he let out a scream of rage, ready to charge at him… but then something rested on the top of his skull, making his magic dissipate instantly.

“That’s enough, Cross”

The little skeleton looked up when he heard the familiar voice. Nightmare stood over him, his hand is what rested on top of his skull. His expression…. It was calm, but not the usual calm. It was the same expression as the day he caught them using the portal to bring Error to the house. Only… it seems much more intense than before…. And it was directed at Ink. Without taking his eye off of the artistic skeleton, Nightmare spoke again, “go take care of your brothers. I reopened the portal down the alley behind me.”

He didn’t wait for an answer before lunging at Ink, pushing him back and away from the other little skeletons. Cross didn’t bother to watch the fight. He shakily stumbled over to his brothers. Killer and Horror seemed to be waking up now, seeing that Nightmare had Ink handled, they went over to Cross who was now kneeling next to Dust. Dust’s sockets were wide open, but his eye lights were gone, and he still wasn’t moving at all. Hesitantly, Cross lightly shook his shoulder, afraid that he might hurt him. “Dust?”

There was no response – not even the slightest twitch. Dread started filling Crosses soul again, so he shook Dust’s shoulder again a little more roughly this time, “Dust.” Still no response. Is he… no, he can’t be. “Dust!” Cross was trembling again now, fresh tears spilling down his face. “Dust please…. Please wake up.” No response.

“…this… this is just a prank, right?... just another one of your jokes, right?

…

“You’re just getting back at me for messing up, right?... well, you got me.”

…

“I don’t think I could feel any worse than I do right now, so… you can get up now.”

…

“Dust… it’s time to get up now… you… you still have to prank call Sans… remember?”

…

“I…I’m sure there’s still a lot of jokes that you haven’t seen yet on Nightmare’s computer…”

…

“Who… who’s going to hold Horror’s hand to keep him from chasing food trucks?”

…

“…who am going to go to for advice? …. You’re the only one who really understands how I feel.”

…

The silence was becoming too much for Cross, as he couldn’t think of anything else to say, tears still spilling form his sockets. A loud crack of splintering wood sounded in the air, making Cross flinch and look over to where Nightmare and Ink were fighting. Ink’s brush was now broken in half and laying uselessly on the ground. Ink looked a bit upset by this, “aww, poor broomy. That’s like the… How many times has this happened again?” He then grabbed the end of his scarf, studying it as if he wasn’t in a fight right now. Suddenly his eyes light up, “OH! I forgot! Sorry to cut this short, but I have to go!” With that he jumped into a nearby puddle and disappeared.

Nightmare seemed to relax a bit once the artistic skeleton was gone. He turned to see that the boys were still there, and he looked like he was about to ask why but stopped when he noticed the state Dust was in and the look on Cross’s face. He approached them and knelt down next to Dust’s limp body opposite Cross, lightly placing his fingers to the side of Dust’s skull and examining him.

Cross sniffled helplessly, “he… he won’t wake up.”

Nightmare didn’t look at him, and continued focusing on Dust before he spoke, “he’s in shock.”

Cross stilled for a moment, confused. “In shock?”

Nightmare nodded and finally looked at him, “in this case, it’s like being unconscious. He hasn’t fallen down.” Nightmare knew what Cross was worried about, so he put his panicked thoughts at ease by saying this. He carefully lifted Dust’s limp body into his arms, cradling him to his chest, “we still need to get him out of here quickly, however.”

Cross nodded and stood. His body was still shaky, but he felt a bit better knowing that Dust wasn’t going to become his name sake. He looked back at the other two little skeletons and flinched a bit when he saw their expressions. Killer wasn’t smiling like he usually would be, and Horror looked like he’d been crying as well. He must’ve scared them with how he reacted to the stat Dust was in. He can’t help but feel like he failed them too – he’s supposed to be strong for them, but instead he scared them into thinking that Dust was dying…. He’s a terrible leader…

Nightmare didn’t waist anytime heading back through the portal to the house. He quickly carried Dust to the living room, the boys fast on his heels, closing the portal behind themselves. He gently laid Dust on the couch, the boys surrounding him, watching closely and worriedly. When Nightmare lifted Dust’s shirt to check the severity of his injuries, his expression suddenly shifted from his calm state – his eye light shrinking in shock. “Don’t look,” he quickly told the boys, moving Dust’s shirt back down to shield them for seeing the state his ribs were in.

It was too late, Cross already saw the damage. How are his ribs still holding together? They’re completely shattered… Nightmare was quiet now, just sitting still, staring at Dust’s now covered chest. His brow bone was furrowed, and there was a bead of sweat on the side of his skull. What’s happening? Why isn’t he doing anything? Cross decided to voice his concern, “will he be ok?”

Nightmare’s only response was closing his socket and furrowing his brow even more. He looked frustrated. What does that mean? The lack of answers was making Cross worry even more. He grabbed at Nightmare’s sleeve, looking at his desperately, “Nightmare.”

From hearing the desperation in Cross’s voice, Nightmare opened his socket to look at him, his expression shifting to a softer one, “…he’ll be fine.” With that, Nightmare carefully lifted Dust into his arms again and began carrying him somewhere else. Cross followed close behind him, “where are you going?”

“I’m going to take care of Dust. Stay here.” Nightmare used a tentacle to lightly push Cross back so he doesn’t follow him. He used his magic to open a portal, instead of going back to the portal room, and stepped through it, closing it behind him so the others couldn’t follow. Where he’s going, he doesn’t want the boys to know about.

Nightmare stepped into the dying grass on top of a hill, the lifeless stump of what used to be a tree in front of him… He stares at it for a moment before looking away. He just needs to wait. He knows that he will show up. He wouldn’t miss the opportunity to see Nightmare back home.

Just as he predicted, a moment later he heard the soft familiar voice call out to him from the opposite side of the stump. “Nightmare?” When he looked in the direction of the voice, he saw his golden clad brother, giving him a suspicious look. His gaze shifted between the little skeleton in Nightmare’s arms to his face. Nightmare hates what he has to do, but what other choice does he have?

“I need your help…” Nightmare shifted a bit uncomfortable, Dream waiting patiently for him to continue. “…can you heal him?” He lightly shifted the small child in his arms to indicate that he was referring to him.

Dream’s gaze turned worried, but the suspicion was still there. “… you’re asking ME for help?” Nightmare furrowed his brow at his brother, becoming irritated, “who else am I supposed to ask? I doubt anyone else would care that I need help. Now will you heal him or not?”

“y-yes, I can heal him.” Dream approached a bit suddenly but then corrected himself and slowed down. Nightmare wouldn’t be here if he didn’t really need his help. Since Nightmare is the king of negativity, his magic isn’t capable of healing, but his positive brother has the perfect magic to be compatible with healing.

Nightmare sat in the grass, gently placing the little skeleton in his lap. Dream sat across from him, waiting for Nightmare’s approval before getting near the child. When Nightmare lifted Dust’s shirt to reveal his injuries. Dream’s eyes widened and a little gasp escaped him as he put his hand over his mouth in horror…, then he shifted that look to the darker skeleton. Nightmare glared at him, “don’t give me that look. I’m not the one who did this to him.”

The lighter skeleton looked a bit relieved, but still very worried, “then… what happened to him?”

“Why don’t he ask that ink-stained friend of yours,” Nightmare snaped at him.

Dream’s jaw went slack at hearing this, his voice was nearly a whisper when he spoke again, “I…Ink did this?”

“What did you expect when you decided to be friends with a psychopath?” Nightmare scoffed, “would you just hurry up and heal him?”

Guilt filled Dream’s expression, but he didn’t say anything else as he hovered his hands over the boy’s ribcage. A light green glow began omitting from his hands, mixing with the golden color of his magic. They sat quietly for a while as Dream healed the child, but as the minutes ticked by, Dream’s expression seemed to grow sadder and sadder, making Nightmare even more irritated by the minute.

Finally, Dream decided to say something, “are…are the other children ok?” He didn’t meet Nightmare’s gaze, instead just staring down at his task.

Nightmare gave a little sigh, but decided to answer anyway, “I didn’t get a chance to look at them more closely, but they seemed to just mostly be covered in bruises…. But one of them did have a bit of blood on him.”

Dream jerked his head up to look at Nightmare with a terrified expression, so Nightmare continued, “judging by the bruise on his cheek, I assume that the impact from the hit must’ve either caused him to bite his tongue, or it knocked a tooth out.” Dream seemed to relax just a bit, “so… nothing serious?”

“not that I could tell, but I’m sure that if they did have any serious injuries, I would’ve seen it on their faces.” Nightmare answered neutrally.

Dream nodded a bit and lowed his head again, “…I…I’m so sorry. I should’ve been more specific with Ink, but I didn’t know that you were going to be sending the children to other aus-“

Nightmare swiftly cut him off, “don’t try to pin this on me when you were the one who told Ink to do this. You may not have said to do this specifically, but you should’ve known that by telling him to stop me, then he would’ve assumed you wanted him to fight.”

Dream lowed his head even further in shame, “I wasn’t trying to pin it on you… I take full responsibility for what happened. You’re right, I should’ve known better… I’ll be sure to talk to Ink about this.”

Nightmare scoffed at him, “well, it’s too late for that now. The damage has already been done.”

Before Dream could answer, Dust’s face twitched, drawing the attention of them both. His blank sockets drooped to the point that they nearly closed as his eye lights started manifesting in them. He stared blurrily at the sky for a moment, before his gaze lazily shifted to Dream, who gave him a warm smile in response. Dust just stared blankly at him for a moment before closing his sockets and tuning his skull to slightly snuggle into Nightmare’s sleeve. His little hand lifted and rested on top of Dream’s, possibly to thank him, but it was more likely that he just didn’t want the thing taking his pain away to leave.

Dust didn’t seem to be very aware of anything at the moment, which benefited Nightmare, since he would prefer it if Dust didn’t remember any of this. The darker skeleton looked to his brother when he let out a tired sigh and the green magic around his hands faded away. There were a few beads of sweat on his skull, seems he doesn’t have much experience with healing, which makes sense, since he never had to heal too often before he was trapped in stone, and he was only just recently freed from that prison. Without experience, healing can drain a monster’s magic quite quickly, even if they’re an immortal being.

Nightmare turned his attention back to Dust to study his brother’s handywork. The majority of the damage was healed, but there were still a few small cracks littering the child’s ribcage. “I’ve done what I can for now, he should be able to heal the rest of the way on his own… or you could bring him back here tomorrow and I can finish healing him?” Dream looked hopeful as he spoke, but it was dashed away at Nightmare’s response, “you said he could heal the rest of the way on his own, so he’ll be fine.”

Dream seemed saddened by this, but he didn’t argue, “… then I would recommend wrapping some bandages around his ribs to keep them from moving too much and getting him some pain medicine.” Nightmare flinched a bit when Dream moved his hand towards Dust’s skull, but the golden clad skeleton either didn’t notice or didn’t care as he lightly placed his hand on the top of Dust’s skull, giving him a gentle pat.

Nightmare relaxed a bit when Dust didn’t seem to mind the affection, but he could just be passed out right now and unaware of his surroundings. There was an awkward silence as Dream pet the child’s skull until Nightmare made a noise of clearing his throat and started moving away, “well… if we’re done here, then I’ll be on my way.”

The darker skeleton was quick to stand and open a portal, but before he stepped through, he paused for a moment. “…thank you… Dream.” He didn’t bother waiting for a response, and to be honest, he didn’t want to hear it.

As soon as Nightmare stepped into the living room of his house again, he was surrounded by the other boys with expectant looks on their faces. He answered their unspoken question as he carefully laid Dust on the couch for now, “he’ll be alright, most of his injuries are healed now. He just needs to rest until he completely recovers.” As the boys hovered around Dust, Nightmare took the time to inspect them more closely. He made sure none of them were limping or showing any signs of pain, and for the most part, Killer and Horror seemed fine, just covered in bruises that would heal quickly. Cross however…

He knelt down in front of the child, who gave him a suspicious look, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket. The darker skeleton reached a hand out to Cross who flinched back from it, making Nightmare pause, but he didn’t drop his hand. He waited for Cross to relax before gently taking his chin into his hand to keep him steady while he used the handkerchief to wipe under the corner of Cross’s mouth. Cross was confused until Nightmare pulled the cloth away to where he could see the spot of purple on it. He was cleaning his face? Usually, Nightmare would expect them to do that themselves.

He couldn’t read Nightmare’s expression – he was just giving him a neutral look. “Could you open your mouth, so I can see the damage?” Cross was suspicious, but he obeyed anyway. Nightmare inspected his mouth, seeing that he had a tooth missing before muttering, “thought so.” He stood up and motioned for Cross to follow him, which the child did so hesitantly.

He was now alone with Nightmare in the bathroom as the darker skeleton sifted through a first aid kit. He took out some gauze, kneeling back down in front of the little skeleton. He gently held his chin again, prompting him to open his mouth, then put some gauze in the spot where the tooth was missing. “Bite down on that.” Cross did as he was told. It stung, but… it did hurt nearly as much as his guilt. He couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in his sockets as he remembered his mistake. He didn’t want to cry in front of Nightmare, but he didn’t know how to stop it.

The little skeleton flinched a bit when he felt Nightmare’s hand on his cheek, gently wiping away one of the tears that slipped from his socket with his thumb. When he looked up at Nightmare, his expression looked… regretful? But why? Nightmare doesn’t seem like the type of person to regret anything. Why now is he finally showing signs of regret?

Seeing Nightmare’s regretful expression only seemed to make anger bubble up in Cross’s soul, “you were late.” There was a moment of silence before Nightmare answered, “…I’m sorry.” He’s sorry? Does he really think that saying ‘sorry’ is just going to fix everything?

Cross clenched his hands into fists, shaking a little, “if you’d been there on time, this wouldn’t have happened. Dust wouldn’t have gotten hurt. I wouldn’t have….” More tears started spilling from Cross’s sockets, making him squeeze his eyes shut. “I wouldn’t have gotten him hurt…. It’s my fault… I shouldn’t have-“

“Cross,” Nightmare interrupted him, moving his hand from his cheek to his shoulder. “None of this is your fault. If anyone is at fault here, it’s me. I was the one who set you out there, knowing the dangers.”

Cross looked at him with so much confusion. Why was he not mad at him? Why is he taking the blame? Nightmare looked like he wanted to say something else but seemed to change his mind and let out a little sigh. He looked uncomfortable… like he wasn’t sure what he should say. “…I … should go check on Error… here.” Nightmare took a box of band aids out of the first aid kit and handed it to the little skeleton. “Go check your brothers for any cuts and put band aids on them…”

With that, Nightmare quickly left. Why is he acting like this? He’s normally very stern with them, but he isn’t acting like his usual self at all. First, he regrets is decision. Then, he tries to reassure Cross by taking the blame. Now, he’s uncomfortable and unsure of what to say, when usually always knows what to say.

What is going on with Nightmare?

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get this chapter out quickly so you guys wouldn't have to sit on a cliff hanger for too long, so sorry if some parts seem a bit rushed.
> 
> Edit: I wanted to add an image of Ink to this.


End file.
